


Students of S.C.H.O.L.A.R

by AgentSkyeMorse



Series: Selective Training Undertaken for Developing and Educating Noteable Teenaged Specialists [1]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Apparently Bobbi Is A Sucker For Brown Eyes, Bobbi Has A Thing For Finding Skye, Bobbi Just Likes To Hurt People Who Hurt Her Kid, Bobbi Needs To Work On Her Plan-Making Skills, Gen, Hartley Thinks Bobbi Has Trouble With Emotions, High Risk Targets Include 11-Year-Olds, Hunter Doesn't Have a Fetish For Bearded Ladies, Hunter Should Be More Wary Of Beautiful Blondes At Gas Stations, I Know Nothing About American Age Of Consent, Kid Skye | Daisy Johnson, Mary Sue Poots, Nobody Messes With Bobbi's Kid, Skye Has A Thing For Being Kidnapped, Teenagers and S.H.I.E.L.D, The Bus Is Not An Actual Bus, teen Bobbi Morse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-22
Updated: 2015-08-24
Packaged: 2018-03-19 01:41:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 22
Words: 44,646
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3591558
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AgentSkyeMorse/pseuds/AgentSkyeMorse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>"We're not sisters, Lance." Bobbi went back to Skye, letting out a slow breath. Classified intel number one; "we're students of the Special Children's Housing, Operations and Learning Active Response... A division of SHIELD... Yes, that SHIELD."<i></i></i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Skye High

**_ Special Children's Housing Operations and Learning Active Response _ **

**_ Skye High _ **

Suburban housing, playgrounds and parks melted away from the scenery, at first into a city of tall buildings and blaring horns before that faded away too.

"This isn't how to get to Saint Agnes'." The little girl in the back seat of the non-descript black SUV frowned. "Hello?" She tried when the man driving didn't acknowledge her. "Where are you taking me?" Still no answer, not even a turn of the head. "Who are you? Where are we going? Why won't you say anything?"

When she finally got a response it was the driving leaning forward and pressing a button the dash to raise a black barrier between the front seats and the little girl. The girl frowned and reached to unbuckle her seatbelt only to have tighten around her, holding firm. She tried the door in an act of desperation, but it wouldn't budge, not even the window would go down. Preteen legs kicked at the seat in front of her, hands curled into fists against the window, but no one seemed to notice, or if they did, they didn't care.

"HELP!" The word escaped her lips repeatedly in varying volumes as she became more hustle rival, desperate to get out, to escape. "Help..." Her voice was hoarse and weak and the girl had nearly driven herself to sleep in her hysterics when the car eventually stopped and her door was opened.

"Time to sleep now, Mary." A woman's voice said at the same time as she felt something prick her neck. The last thing 11-year-old Mary Poots thought before she was forced into unconsciousness was that she hated that name. "I've been driving in circles for two hours waiting for her to get tired." The driver reported, eying the child as another man in a nearly identical suit picked her and started to carry her away. "You may want to keep her sedated."

"She's a child, Agent Adams, not a criminal." The woman pursed her lips at the driver. " I want a full physical, someone get me her file, and _where_ is Morse?" The woman listed as she followed the Agent carrying the girl to the medical wing.

"Ma'am." The requested file was presented to her before they even reached the medical wing. "Morse is in class, Ma'am."

"Mary Poots... Age eleven... No skills or abilities; why do we have her?" The woman asked the room at large as one of the medicals started taking blood samples and testing the girls pupils. "What's so special about about an orphan that she's a level ten classification?" She turned to the agent who had handed her the file who simply shrugged. She rolled her eyes and kept reading about the seemingly normal orphan. "Unknown origin... Oh." The senior agent realised as she read on. Objects of Unknown Origin were usually just that - objects - but this one was a little girl who, according to reports, death followed. Agent Maria Hill, Deputy Director of the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division watched the small dark haired girl sleep as medicals ran around taking her vitals and testing blood samples. 084's were dangerous - anything unknown was dangerous - but the child certainly didn't look dangerous with her puffy red eyes and tear streaked cheeks.

"Agent Hill?" The woman turned to the young voice. Barbara Morse was one of the best seniors in combat, espionage, and quite adept at computer science as well. Typically all new students were partnered with a senior for the first year - to help them assimilate - and Morse was sounding like the best option, more than just because she hadn't mentored a student yet.

"Morse, you haven't mentored yet?" Agent Hill asked, just to be sure even though her file said she hadn't.

"No, Ma'am." Morse confirmed and Maria nodded.

"Mary Poots, eleven, orphan, possible powers are unknown." Maria nodded her head in the direction of the child. "I have to return to the Hub, I want weekly reports. If she so much as sneezes I want to know." Maria ordered, Morse barely had time to nod before her superior walked away. If this girl really was an 084 Maria needed to keep a close eye on her.

"Barbara Morse?" One of the Doctors in the medical wing approached her - a young doctor barely older than the blonde herself.

"Bobbi." The girl corrected with a wrinkle of her nose, still trying to wrap her mind around the fact that in the ten minutes since she finished class for the day she had become a mentor to a girl that had the attention of the Deputy Director.

"Right... The girl should be unconscious for a few more hours at least. Someone will let you know when she's awake if you would like." The doctor reported and Bobbi nodded.

"Thanks." She murmured, keeping her eyes on the kid for a moment longer. Izzy and Grant would never believe this!.. At least she'd be able to compare when they argued about their own young wards - a pair of genius 13-year-olds from the United Kingdom, Jemma Simmons from England and Leo Fitz from Scotland respectively.

"Bob!" Izzy called across the courtyard as Bobbi was heading back to her dorm with the file on the Poots kid - well, the part that wasn't above her classification level, which admittedly was very little.

"Frank!" Bobbi smirked back, there were very few nicknames or abbreviations that went with Barbara - and she certainly wasn't a 'Barbie' - but Bob made her sound like a man.

"Rumor has it that Director Fury came to offer you early entry to the Academy." Izzy rolled her eyes, some of the rumours were honestly odd.

"I wish; Hill brought me a kid to mentor." Bobbi shook her head and held up the file.

"Hill?" Izzy frowned, sure, technically Agent Hill was in charge of S.C.H.O.L.A.R, but she hardly ever came there in person. "With a new kid in the middle of a semester?"

"Semester started three weeks ago, it's hardly the middle." Bobbi rolled her own eyes, though even she had to admit the whole situation was odd... And now it was her situation to handle. "I've got to go find her a room, I'll see you later, Iz." Bobbi started to the dorms again with a sigh. Usually new students shared a room with their senior mentor - something about discouraging fraternisation between the older students - but that didn't mean Bobbi would give up her privacy without a fight; Izzy constantly complained that Her kid Simmons lefts dead animals on the communal desk in their room, and Ward said he was actually afraid to touch half of the gadgets Fitz left lying around.

**_*****_ **

Mary Poots woke with a start, but it wasn't like the movies where people shot up looking alert, she started and her eyes squinted open against the soft, but clear lighting. Mary squinted at what was directly in front of her; a mass of blonde hair and black leather and a blurry face that was slowly becoming clearer.

"Hey there." The blonde spoke, her voice was soft, but it didn't comfort Mary very much.

"Who are you?" Dark brown eyes stared warily at clear blue.

"My name is Bobbi." She was still trying to be soothing.

"Where am I? This isn't Saint Agnes'. Why am I here?" The little girl became steadily more panicked to the point that Bobbi was afraid she would have a panic attack. Bobbi sighed, no one had told her that the girl didn't even know where or why she was going.

"This is a school, Mary, for special people who can be safe here." Special really was a relative term here; geniuses, fighting, kids that are exceptionally skilled at something, and then there were the kids with super human powers. "You won't be going back to Saint Agnes', you'll stay here until you finish school."

"Where is here?" Mary sat up, looking around the room; a smallish plain coloured room with two chairs, a table, a lot of beeping machines and the bed that she was in. "Why did that man take me? I was supposed to go back to Saint Agnes'."

"You're here because you're special, like all of us. You can do something and the people here want to help you be better at it." Though her file hadn't said what she could do, which was peculiar. "This is a school for only the most special people where none will send you back or say you're not a good fit." That however was one thing that was in her file. The words 'not a good fit' had cropped up more than anything else. "Mary Poots, welcome to the Special Children's Housing, Operations and Learning Active Response... Sucky name, I know." Bobbi grinned, all the students were convinced that whoever created the school just wanted it to spell Scholar.

"I _hate_ that name." Was all the little girl said in response, her face screwed up with distaste.

"Oh-Kay." Bobbi didn't really know what to say to that.

"Why did that man think I'm special?" Mary frowned up at Bobbi, looking a lot younger than 11. "I can't do anything special and my teachers always say I'm dumb."

"I don't know, Ma-Kid-" Bobbi corrected herself, she didn't know what to do if she couldn't even call the kid by her name. "-but I definitely don't think you're dumb." Mary looked away and shrugged, she still didn't know why she was here - or even where here was - but she figured it was best to play along until she could escape. "You hungry? Why don't we grab some food then head to our room?" Bobbi suggested, earning a pair of suspiciously narrowed eyes before the girls hunger won out and she nodded.


	2. Bobbi Pins

_**Bobbi Pins** _

Mary kept her eyes wide as she followed Bobbi through what felt like a maze of hallways to a kitchen after she had been dismissed from the medical wing. As they walked Bobbi pointed out specific classrooms and told stories about pictures on the walls, but none of it mattered to the smaller girl who made not of every exit she passed even though she was long passed lost. Mary stood awkwardly by the doorway as Bobbi went to the fridge, unsure of what to do, it felt like a new foster house all over again and she knew how foster homes always ended.

"I hope you like mac 'n' cheese with little hotdogs." Bobbi commented after looking through the fridge and pantry for something quick to cook. There was a dining hall that most of the other students and teachers were at right now, but taking skittish little Mary there was probably a bad idea for the first night so Bobbi had decided on the kitchen - of which here was one in each dormitory.

"S'okay." Mary shrugged, slowly moving over and climbing onto one of the stools by the island, her eyes following the older girl as she moved.

"Well," Bobbi began when she was almost finished a few very silent minutes later. "We're not supposed to have food in our rooms, but I won't tell if you won't." She bargained, going to the fridge and grabbing a couple of drinks to go with their dinner. Sure it was a rule against food in the rooms, but no one actually followed that rule, nearly everyone kept candy stashes somewhere in their rooms. "What do you say?"

"Okay?" Mary looked a little wary as she picked up the drinks and Bobbi took the bowls of food back to her room. She'd spent over an hour searching for a spare room or someone will to take a younger roommate - not that she had anything against Mary, she'd just really liked having her own room - to no avail. So in the end she'd cleared all of things off the spare bed and prepared herself for having a roommate for the first time since her senior mentor had graduated from S.C.H.O.L.A.R.

"So," Bobbi managed to juggle both bowls into one hand to open the door. She'd always kept her room clean, but she liked to keep the weapons she was studying and practicing with on the spare bed - that was no longer spare - so rather than scare the girl they were now resting in the bottom drawer of her dresser. "This is our room." It was rather unremarkable, but not horrible. White walls, two beds, two dressers, two desks with chairs, a wardrobe, a bathroom. A standard dorm room for two people.

"I'm sharing with you?" Mary's eyebrows shot up in surprise that she was sharing a room with an older girl.

"Yeah, but don't worry, I'll only kill you in your sleep if you steal my Cheetos." Bobbi grinned as she sat on her bed, watching as Mary chose to sit on the floor next to her bed. "And when I graduate at the end of the year you'll get this room all to yourself."

"You said this is a school for special people, right?" Mary asked, looking up at Bobbi through long lashes.

"Yeah."

"So how are you special? 'Cause the nuns always say the only thing different about me is how many times I've been sent back." She was actually supposed to go back today from another home, but instead she was here.

"Well, I promise we won't send you back." The blonde assured, trying to be chirpy, but everything seemed to fall flat with this kid. "I'm weapons and combat gifted, a couple of Agents came to my school when I was a little older than you and said I was special, that my hand to hand combat was very good for someone my age without any training, next thing I know I'm here and I'm learning proper fighting techniques." One of the Agents had actually been Hill before she was promoted to Deputy Director, maybe that was why she wanted Bobbi to be the kids mentor?

"So why did they want me?" Mary picked at her food, managing to eat the hotdogs and avoid all the macaroni. "I'm not smart and I can't do anything special... I can fight okay, but I always get in trouble after."

"Hey." Bobbi waited until Mary looked up at her again before she continued. "You are special, Mary-" the girl wrinkled her nose, "-you wouldn't be here if someone very important didn't think you weren't special. So, I don't ever want to hear you say you're not, okay?" The girl didn't look convinced, but she didn't argue so Bobbi continued. "And why don't we leave the fighting to classes, yeah? There's nothing better than getting an A for beating up a bunch of boys."

"You get graded for beating people up?" Mary stared at her in wonder making Bobbi smile. "That's so cool." Fitz always looked at Ward with wide eyed wonder of a little brother in awe of an older brother, Simmons seemed to have some sort of bond with Trip - a 15-year-old legacy grandson of a Howling Comando - and would follow Izzy around like a puppy... Maybe they felt that little twinge of Pride Bobbi had just felt when Mary called her cool. Bobbi kept an eye on the young girl as they both ate their dinner, the little brunette moved onto the macaroni after all the little hotdog pieces were gone, it was cute to see her separating her food with such precision. She only ate the macaroni pieces in ones and if two happened to be stuck together she'd use her fingers to separate them.

_********* _

Bobbi was an inherently light sleeper and she hadn't been asleep long enough to fall into a deep sleep. She'd kept an eye on Mary until the girl eventually fell asleep on top the covers on her bed. Then she had to get started on her homework for the night, including a half hour practice with a set of staves that would have wait until tomorrow. When Bobbi finally managed to off her bedside lamp it was long after midnight and she was back up again within in the hour, realising that the soft breathing of her young roommate was missing and there was a soft click of the door closing.

"Mary?" Bobbi's voice was soft, hoping she'd get a response even though she knew she wouldn't. "Shit." She slipped quickly out of bed, grabbing her cell phone to use as a flashlight. It was the middle of the night in early October in a giant school... The kid could be anywhere. "Mary." She tried to keep her voice quiet, but still loud enough to be heard. Okay, well. The door had only closed when she woke up, Bobbi reasoned with herself, so she couldn't have gone far. Three hallways, two empty broom closets and an increasingly irritated teenager later Bobbi finally heard scuffling and childish grunt of exertion.

Stepping slowly she round the corner to see her young ward fighting with an emergency exit door. So much for emergency exits being easy to escape, though in this case she was grateful.

"Mary." She hissed, making the girl jump in fright and turn to her. "What are you doing?" Though that was a stupid question, she was clearly trying to escape. "Get back here." The girl eyed Bobbi, searched for another escape route, nibbled on her bottom lip as she bounced from foot to foot. "Mary..." She tried to warn, but the girl took off at full sprint anyway, darting passed her and down the hall. Bobbi swore under her breath but followed, quickly gaining ground on the girl. "Gotcha!" She grinned, snaking her arms around the girl and catching her mid-step.

"Let. Me. Go!" Mary struggled, small hands clawing at her arms and legs kicking out in attempt to be free.

"Calm down, Mary, just calm down and talk to me."

"That's not my name." The brunette ground out, refusing to give up her struggle, even as Bobbi sank to the floor and held her still in her lap. She's 11, not a toddler, she shouldn't be held captive in someone's lap!

"Okay, that's not your name." Bobbi agreed, attempting to be soothing if only to stop the kid from getting herself hurt. "What is your name?"

"Let me go. Let me go. Let me go." Mary tried to squirm out of her grip, becoming more and more frustrated. "I **hate** you. Let me go."

"Your records say Mary Poots, if that isn't your name tell me what is." Bobbi continued, jeez, this kid was wriggly.

"I want to go. Take me back. Let me go." Mary was starting to cry and heaving, her body shaking as she slowed and stopped struggling, ending on the floor in a mess of tears and sobs that broke Bobbi's heart. "Please? Please let me go?" "Hey," Bobbi was kneeling over the girls legs, pinning her down in case she tried to run again even though she looked like she'd given up.

"I'm not going to hurt you, okay?" She tried to be as soothing as possible. "You want to tell me what your name is if it's not Mary?" She tried to lock eyes with the girl, but she kept looking away or closing her eyes. "Hey, look at me, come on, Kiddo, look at me."

"Please let me go, I'll be good to nuns, I promise." Mary whimpered, "and I'll stop being bad, and I won't get in fights even though Timothy Peters was being a bully first and-"

"Mary!" Bobbi cut over her before wincing internally at the name. "I don't want you to be god-well, I do... But, I want you talk to me, okay?" She sat back on her heels and watched her. "Will you come back to our room and talk to me? I promise I won't hurt you."

"Promise?" Mary peeked her eyes over to the blonde warily. "Promise." Bobbi smiled, getting up and holding out her hand, which Mary promptly ignored and stood up on her own, scrubbing her fists at the tears on her face. "Come on, I'll even share my cookies with you."


	3. SkyeFall

Bobbi kept her hand on Mary's shoulder as she led her back to their room, just in case she tried to run again, not that she thought it was likely now. The halls were dark and the walk back felt a lot longer than the hurried run to find her, and if they were caught out of their room after lights out Bobbi would be the one to get in trouble, not Mary. Once they were back to their room Mary walked over and flung herself on her bed, face down, ignoring Bobbi as she locked the door and tossed her phone back to her bedside. Guess she wasn't getting much sleep before her morning yoga.

"Okay, Kiddo, you want to talk to me?" Bobbi prompted, running a hand through her hair tiredly. "Okay," she was met with silence, she sat on the edge of Mary's bed, thinking to herself. "Want to tell me what your name is if it's not Mary?" That seemed like a good place to start, but all it earned her was a shrug of the kids shoulders. "Why did you say it's not your name?" Another shrug made Bobbi just a little more frustrated. "Help me out here, Kid, talk to me." She hesitantly put a hand on her back, feeling her tense under her touch. "You know, my name is actually Barbara, but I don't like it either." The girl sniffles and turned her head a little towards Bobbi, but otherwise didn't move. "It sounds like an old persons name. I tried to convince my parents to change it when I was seven, I wanted to be Aleisha." She smiled at the memory, she'd refused to answer to anything except Aleisha for over a month. "But then I realised that Barbara wasn't so bad, I mean I still don't like it, But I like Bobbi, and I got to choose it... Is that what you want? Don't you like what your parents named you?"

"My parents didn't name me." Mary finally burst out, turning over and sitting up looking angry. "The nuns at Saint Agnes' chose the stupid name, not my parents and I hate it. Hate it. Hate it."

"Is there something else you want to be called?" And that seemed to make her pause. Clearly this wasn't a new problem the girl had, but had anyone bothered to talk to her about it? "Tell you what, if you find a name you like and that's who you want to be than that's what I'll calls you, deal?" Mary nodded slowly and Bobbi marked that off her mental list of issues to talk through. "Now why did you try to run away?"

"Why did you stop me?" Mary shot back with a withering glare. "I thought you were nice? Why are you keeping me here?"

"Because this is the best place for you, to help-"

"I don't need help! I need to not be here." Mary flung herself back on her bed in frustration. "I need to not be taken and hurt and kept here when the nuns and people at school are gonna wanna know where I am." Oh, Bobbi realised, the kid thought she'd been kidnapped... Which she technically had been kidnapped if she was here against her will. And none of her reassurances seemed to help her understand that no one wanted to hurt her.

"Someone hurt you?" Bobbi finally processed the whole speech.

"I was in the car supposed to go back to Saint Agnes' and the man wasn't listening to me and he kept driving, then someone made me go to sleep and when I woke up my arm hurt." She held up her left arm as proof and Bobbi felt sick that she hadn't noticed the dark purple and black bruise that covered her wrist. How had she not noticed that? How had the doctors that examined her not noticed that? That was more than just a bump or a bruise, it might even be broken! Shit!

Okay, Izzy failed her basic first aid course, Grant had a stick stuck up his ass and would give her a lecture on taking a kid out after hours, she was friends with others, but not enough to take Mary to them. Maybe Izzy's kid Simmons, she was talking about anatomy and biology? No, as smart as she was Jemma's was only 13 and as much a stickler for the rules as Ward.

"Can I touch it?" At Mary's hesitant nod Bobbi's fingers ghosted over it, wincing at the way she flinched and whimpered. "We need to go to the medical wing, that's where you woke up. We need to get a doctor to look at this okay? And I'll make sure they give you something so it doesn't hurt."

"It hurts, why did they hurt me?" Mary sounded small and young, younger than 11 that was for sure.

"I don't know, Kiddo." There would be a doctor awake in the medical wing, there always was in case of emergency, but Bobbi found herself hoping that it wasn't the same doctor that had examined her during the day, because if it was she wanted know how they let a child out of there with a broken wrist. "Let's get you fixed up."

"'Kay." Mary kept her head down as Bobbi led her back to the medical wing, all the fight seeming to have drained out of her for the night.

"Hey, I promised cookies, didn't I?" The blonde teenage realised, darting back into their room for a minute and coming back with a bag of chocolate chip cookies for the younger child in hopes of cheering her up a little.

The walk back to the medical wing felt twice as long as the walk to the room, especially when they were the only ones in the halls. By the time they reached the doctor Bobbi was more than happy to have someone else there, even though he looked suspiciously like the doctor who was there when she discharged Mary.

"Look at this kids wrist and tell me how hell she was allowed out of here." She hissed at the man who jumped up from his desk with a start. "I've only done basic first aid and even I know it's broken.

"I assure you no part of that girl is broke-" the doctor started to deny until Bobbi grabbed a not black part of the kids arm and held it up. "Oh, that looks broken." Bobbi had to restrain herself from punching the guy as even Mary rolled her eyes. "I'll need to do an x-ray to find out if I need to realign the bone." Without even being told Mary walked over to a machine by a white screen in the back of the room and hopped up on the bed there. Bobbi was familiar with the x-ray as well - even though that particular was usually for extreme emergencies when none of the private rooms were available - but found herself frowning at why the 11-year-old knew it so well.

"She's in pain." Bobbi turned back to the doctor. "Fix that."

**_*****_ **

Bobbi Morse was hot! For early October she felt unnaturally warm as she woke from a restless sleep feeling more tired than the night before. The night before in question flooded her mind, making her aware of several things; one, the reason she was so hot was because she was draped over her young new charge Mary Poots. It was long past the time she usually woke up for yoga and Tai chi. Said young charge was curled as small as possible and cradling her broken wrist in its cast close to her body. And she was so dead if she didn't get to her History class ten minutes ago.

Bobbi gingerly sat up, trying not to wake the girl and swore under her breath, she was so late to class. So late in fact that it would probably be better to just be early to her next class. They were in a private room in the medical wing still, Mary having fallen asleep while the doctor had set her arm in a cast.

"I've got your back, Kid. You'll be okay now." The teenager murmured with a sigh before she got off the bed and stretched. She was dead anyway, no point in going to History now, so instead she went in search of something to eat.

"Don't leave." A small voice stopped her at the doorway. "Please? I don't like that doctor." Mary fluttered her big brown eyes and Bobbi was certain she knew the power behind those eyes. Bobbi stepped back to the bed with a sad smile, it looked like the girl had attached herself to her in her moment of distress.

"I'm not leaving, Mary." She assured, "I'm just going to get something to eat, are you hungry?" A slow nod answered instead of words. "I'll be back before you know it." Those brown eyes tracked her out of the room and left Bobbi feeling uneasy about leaving her.

"Morse." That damn doctor from the night before approached - surely it was nearly the end of his shift? "Agent Hill authorised you to receive Miss Poots' test results."

"Thanks." During the night the two of them had established a mutual disliking of each other. "The kid is hungry. Probably in pain too."

"Sure." It was a small comfort that the doctor was smart; he'd learned early in their interactions that keeping Mary content was the best way to avoid bodily harm after Bobbi had threatened to break his wrist because she didn't think he was being careful enough.

"Normal, normal, normal." Bobbi mumble, flipping through the pages of test results as she went back to Mary's room. Seriously, they couldn't just tell her the kid was doing fine? Aside from the broken wrist of course, everything else read completely normal.

"Thought you said you were bringing food?" Bobbi looked up from the pages to see Mary frowning at her and absently picking at her cast.

"Someone's going to bring it for us." Mary went back to her cast, attempting to force her finger down the insides of the plaster. "That's not gonna stop the itching, Kid, it'll just make it hurt more... Or get your fingers stuck."

"I won't get my fingers stuck." Her little eyes rolled with exasperation on a child could muster. "What's that?"

"This is a bunch of useless paper saying that you are a perfectly healthy eleven-year-old." She tossed them to the side with a sigh.

"Does that mean I can leave?"

"Depends," Bobbi shrugged, "when we leave here you have to do a bunch of placement tests and I have to go to class, so do you really want to leave?"

"I hate tests." Mary wrinkled her nose, sitting back in the bed with a huff. "School tests, doctor tests... Doctors who say they just want to talk tests." Nothing in her file said anything about shrinks, Bobbi frowned to herself, why would something like that be left out? "Which one is this? Is it gonna tell me what's special about me?"

"Sort of, it's going to be all different tests to tell you what classes you should take." Because everything in the medical tests showed that she was completely normal despite what her file said about possible powers. If she did have powers they apparently didn't affect her genetics.


	4. Chapter 4

Mary watched Bobbi back out of the room with trepidation; Bobbi said she had to go to class and that she, Mary, had to take some tests, which really meant that Bobbi was leaving her and the teachers here were going to figure out that she wasn't really special. Which she'd been saying since she woke up, but she kind of liked Bobbi and would be sad if she couldn't see her anymore because she had to leave.

Leaving was actually what she wanted, she'd never wanted to come here in the first place, that man in the suit had just come to her latest failed foster home and said he was from the government - he even showed her a cool badge with an eagle on it. Thinking back on it she knew she shouldn't have gone with him - Stranger Danger - but now she didn't know how to get back to St Agnes'... Not that she really wanted to be back there, but even the orphanage was better than being kidnapped by the man from the government and having a broken wrist.

"Complete the questions, if there is one you don't know the answer move on to the next question. You have two hours to answer as many as you can in increasing difficulties." The woman in room recited in a bored tone when Mary was sitting at the only computer in the room. There was only a teachers desk and a students desk with a computer in the room. It felt like a really foreboding test room.

The questions were easy at the start, just basic math and English and other boring subjects that she already did in school, but it slowly got harder to the point where she was scrunching her forehead and she felt dumb because she didn't know the answer. Mary looked at the teacher who wasn't even looking at her. These questions were hard and she was getting frustrated. Her hand slowly moved into the air, waiting to be acknowledged.

"Can I go? My arm hurts." She tried not to sound too whiney, but her arm was sore, and her head was starting to hurt as well.

"Not until your time is up and your results have been recorded." The woman - she never even said what her name was - denied. Mary looked at the clock on the wall, that was still nearly an hour away.

"Can I go to the bathroom then?" Nevermind that she didn't know where the bathroom was; that would just mean that she could be gone longer.

"No." This woman was almost as mean as the man who kidnapped her.

"But-" that was against the law, wasn't it?, stopping someone from going to the bathroom.

"If you can't answer anymore questions sit quietly until your time is up. If you actually need to use the bathroom I will take you." Mary weighed the options in her head for a moment, surely she wouldn't actually follow her into the bathroom?

"I need to go." She decided, hopping up from the uncomfortable chair at the desk. She forced herself not to skip down the hall in glee because the woman was right beside her until they got the girls bathroom. Mary let out a breath of relief when the woman waited outside in the hall. "Hello." There was another girl in the bathroom, standing at one of the sinks scrubbing at something red on her hands.

"Hello." The blonde girl was older than her, but not as old as Bobbi. And her accent sounded like she was from England.

"What's that?" Now that she was closer it looked like blood.

"Oh, uh... Blood." The girl admitted, her cheeks turning pink. "A bit of a mishap in Biology class." She explained sheepishly, looking up from her hands at the new girl. "Oh, are you new here?"

"Yeah." Mary shrugged, she still wasn't convinced that his was a good place to be, no matter what Bobbi said.

"I'm in my first year, but I don't recognise you from orientation." There was an orientation? Was she supposed to have gone to something like that where she could say she didn't want to be here?

"I didn't go to orientation, I only got here yesterday." Mary idly wondered how long she could hide in here before she had to go back to the test room.

"Is your senior mentor Bobbi Morse?" The English girl asked, her face lighting up.

"Yeah." Mary narrowed her eyes, how did she know Bobbi? "How'd you know?"

"My senior mentor Isabelle Hartley is friends with Bobbi, she said it's very unusual that you came after the semester started." Oh, Mary didn't know what to say to that so she just nodded.

"Two minutes and I'm coming in there." The test woman's voice called from the hallway.

"Of course!" The English suddenly looked more excited, "it's your first day, you must be taking your placement tests; aren't they just so fun?"

"Ew no." Mary scrunched up nose, who could possibly think tests are fun? "School is boring... Um... See you later, I guess." Mary half waved as she turned back to head out, leaving the English girl to keep washing blood off her hands. "Is the two hours finished yet?" She turned her brown eyes up to the woman hopefully.

"If your results have finished calculating I will escort you to the cafeteria where your senior mentor will meet you when her class is finished." The test woman said and Mary had resist the urge to cheer.

*****

Bobbi was anxious to get back to Mary when lunch finally rolled around, the nervous look the girl had given her as she left was enough to make her uneasy. Agent Stone had told her the academic testing would take two hours which meant Mary would be finished at the same time as she got out of class... Except when she got to the room she'd left her at Mary wasn't there.

"Agent Stone?" Bobbi tried not seem too nervous when she saw the woman at the big desk at the front of the room. Mary wouldn't run again, she tried to convince herself.

"I escorted the child to the cafeteria, Miss Morse." Agent Stone said without looking up, Bobbi nodded even though she wasn't looking and backed out of the room, taking all of three steps before she started running.

"Morse!" She was halfway there before someone called her name.

"What?" She really did try not to sound like she wanted to kill Ward, but Mary was alone in the cafeteria and probably contemplating running away again. Hopefully not.

"Jeez... You're the one who told me to do pleasantries." Ward rolled his eyes.

"You're doing great, Ward, see you later." With that she took off again, she'd explain to Izzy and Ward later, right now she had a kid with a broken wrist alone in a foreign environment.

"Bobbi!" The blonde could feel relief flood her when Mary spotted her first, running to her side before she had even finished scanning the giant cafeteria.

"I'm here." Bobbi surveyed the girl, she looked okay; maybe a little pale, but she'd had the same pallor since yesterday. "Are you okay, Kid? How's you're arm?"

"S'okay." Mary shrugged, stepping away a little in an attempt to look more grown up.

"It's okay to not be okay, Mary." The girl frowned back as if she'd grown an extra head so Bobbi decided she could add that to the list of things she needed to revisit and chose a different subject. "Why don't we get some food and introduce you to some people?" She suggested earning herself a shrug. This kid was full of communication.

"I met someone today." Mary announced as she followed Bobbi to the line of people waiting for food. "In the bathroom, she said she knows you."

"Yeah?" Mary nodded, staying as close to her mentor as physically possibly whilst also trying to look like she wasn't. "What was she like? Was she nice?"

"She was washing blood off her hands... And she was English."

"Oh, that's Jemma Simmons." Bobbi relaxed a little, at least it was someone nice and who she could trust not to scare Mary off... Though the fact that their first meeting was in a bathroom with Simmons washing blood off her hands didn't sound too comforting. "Her and another boy her age, Fitz, are gonna sit with us at lunch."

"She said tests are fun so either I'm taking the wrong tests or she doesn't know what fun is." Bobbi couldn't help but laugh at that, it definitely sounded like Simmons.

"Fitz and Simmons are some of those child genius kids you hear about; they've both finished their high school education and are studying college courses now. They practically breathe for tests and homework." She explained, she was big enough to admit that a pair of 13-year-olds made her feel stupid sometimes, but it didn't make her feel bad, if anything it made her proud of the two kids. "You ready to meet some more people?" She had to resist the urge to sigh when Mary shrugged her shoulders, inching closer to her.

"So we finally get to meet the famous Mary?" Izzy grinned at them as they approached. Mary looked up to Bobbi nervously so she smiled and urged her to sit down, hoping this would go well.

Jeez, when did she start worrying so much? No, she knew the answer to that; about 3:45 yesterday afternoon when Agent Hill told her Mary was her responsibility.

"This is Izzy Hartley, Grant Ward, Leo Fitz, Antoine Triplett, and you apparently already met Jemma Simmons." Bobbi introduced the ragtag group. "And this is Mary."

"Hello again." Simmons smiled and Mary half smiled in response. That's good, Bobbi mused, it was only a smile, but that smile could be the start of a friendship and she had a feeling that Mary hadn't had many friends before.


	5. Cloudy Skyes

"You guys go ahead." Bobbi waved her friends off after lunch, they all had the same hand to hand combat class now, but she was once again hesitant. After the academic tests new students usually did physical tests and - where applicable - powers tests, but Bobbi had managed to reschedule Mary's due to her broken arm and not even knowing if she had powers. "Come here, Kid." The girl was standing a few feet away with her fingers wiggling down her cast again.

"My fingers aren't stuck." Was what she said, yanking her fingers out of the plaster as proof.

"Good to know." Bobbi smirked making her flush. "I need you to promise me something."

"What?" Mary narrowed her eyes.

"I have to go to class and I need you to promise you won't run away again." She already didn't know how she was going to explain a broken wrist to Agent Hill, let alone two escape attempts if she tried it again. "You can hang out with some other kids, play games, watch TV, anything you want, just please don't run away again?"

"And what if I do? You can't stop me if you're in class." She crossed her arms across her chest for a second before deciding it was too uncomfortable with the cast and uncrossing them.

"No, but you're at least two hours walk from the nearest town and I really don't want to have to come and find you." Although at least now it was daylight and not the middle of the night.

"Oh... Um, okay." Two hours was a long time to walk, and that was if she knew the right direction to go, which she didn't. Bobbi pursed her lips, it wasn't exactly the promise she wanted, but she had class and detention for skipping History that morning.

"I'll be back before you know it, Kid." Bobbi didn't know who she was trying to reassure, so she just half smiled and started to leave.

"I'll promise if you will." Mary called when she got twenty feet away. "I'll-" she faltered when Bobbi turned back to face her. "-I'll promise I won't run away if you promise to come back." The blonde teenager smiled sadly, walking back the twenty feet.

"I promise, Mary, I'll always come back to you. If you ever need me I'll be there, I promise." Bobbi knelt down so she was actually shorter than Mary, but she could look into her eyes. "You don't have to promise, but I do."

"I won't run away from you again... Promise." Bobbi didn't know why that made her smile and want to hug the girl so instead she just swallowed the lump in her throat and stood up.

"See you soon, Miniature." Jeez, one day with the kid and she was turning into a softy. Mary watched Bobbi go to class and didn't know what to do. Bobbi and her older friends were in class, the other boy had a different class, and Jemma and Leo had run off as soon as they finished eating to do something that sounded suspiciously like school work for fun.

Mary closed her eyes and tried to remember how to get back to her room, she'd always had someone with her when she was going somewhere except for when she tried to run away, but she'd promised Bobbi she wouldn't run away again. Which meant she'd need another way to escape. Clearly being injured wasn't a way out, but they'd probably send her back for not being gifted which made her realise she should have done worse on her test that morning.

Without realising Mary had started walking and found herself in a foreign hallway - or it could have been one she'd been on before, but they all looked the same so it was hard to tell. She tried not to panic as she kept walking, hoping to find someone or some thing that could tell her where she was. A dead end, she tried to backtrack, but couldn't remember which turns she'd taken. Mary could feel herself starting panic, breathing heavier and brushing away the tears every time they fell.

"Not again." She sank to the floor in a corner, bringing her knees up to her chest.

_********* _

"So, you get a kid to mentor and suddenly you're a mother?" Izzy smirked at Bobbi when the girls were changing after their hand to hand combat class.

"Don't act like you won't kill someone for looking at Simmons funny." Bobbi shot back with her own smirk.

"She's like a puppy, why would anyone be mean to a puppy?" Izzy demanded indignantly, making Bobbi roll her eyes.

"That puppy is probably one lab accident away from killing us all." She pointed out, there was actually an ongoing bet about which one of the science genius kids would make something explode or create a superhero... So far Simmons was in the lead. It wasn't her fault that she had the potential to be a mad scientist. "But, Mary's different. She's tiny and scared, and she tried to run away because she thought she was kidnapped and... Hill said she was my responsibility."

"That changes it all, doesn't it? Being responsible for them?" Izzy sighed, sitting down for a moment to tie her shoes.

"At least yours didn't come with a broken bone and a runaway attempt." Simmons had been the picture perfect first year from her perfect grades to her perfect manners. "Speaking of, I was up all night with the kid so I skipped History and I'm pretty sure May is gonna kill me."

"Good luck." Izzy waved her off with a shake of her head, it had been nice knowing Bobbi, but she was right, Agent May the History teacher was going to kill her.

"You better have a good reason, Morse." Agent Melinda May, scary as hell History teacher, warned without looking up from her desk when Bobbi hesitantly stepped into her classroom.

"I know, I'm sorry, Agent May, I promise it won't-" the blonde cringed, sure she wouldn't keep her promise to Mary because May would have her in detention so long that she'd probably be dead by the time she was free.

"You better have a good reason, More, for being here and not with that kid." May elaborated, stunning the girl. "Go." She reminded with a raised eyebrow when all Bobbi did was stand there in shocked silence.

"Yes, Ma'am." Bobbi really didn't need to be told twice - and certainly didn't want to give May the chance to change her mind - so she turned on the spot and ran.

"Kids." May rolled her eyes, returning to marking her homework.

The first place Bobbi checked was her room, but it was as empty as it had been since the morning. The cafeteria was full of kids, but none of them were the little brunette she was looking for with the broken wrist. Three different common rooms, a computer and tech room, and the test classroom were all void of Mary Poots as well.

"Ward, Hartley." Bobbi tried not to sound too panicked when she spotted her friends near the library. "Have you seen the kid?"

"Lose her already, Morse?" Ward scoffed, she didn't bother to mention that this was actually the second time she'd lost her.

"Not in the mood, Ward." She quickly ran through the library, her two friends on her heels. She found their two first years - unsurprisingly - but not the missing one.

"Where did you see her last?" Simmons questioned, her young face full of concern.

"Cafeteria, but I already checked there." She'd actually checked three times when she'd been running around.

"Why don't we go there and split up, she can't have gone far." Ward suggested, Fitz may have weird possibly deadly inventions - he'd never admit he was afraid - but at least he'd never lost him, and maybe later when they found the girl he might gloat about teachers pet Bobbi Morse losing her first year on the first day.

"No ones seen her for three hours, she could be anywhere." Though she was clinging to the hope that she'd keep to her promise and not run away again.

"I'll head towards the pool, Fitz and Simmons, you guys start looking near the science division, Hartley the gyms and combat, Morse to the gifted wing." Ward took charge once the five of them were at the cafeteria and had ascertained for the fourth time that Mary wasn't there. "Meet back here in half an hour if we can't find her and go to a teacher."

Bobbi didn't even wait for the others to affirm let alone leave before she took off. It had been three hours since she'd seen Mary and the girl had been nervous then, she knew she felt uneasy about leaving her. S.C.H.O.L.A.R was a big school, even for a boarding school it was especially big, and there was no shortage of hallways and corridors and stairwells that anyone could get lost in, especially someone who didn't know their way around yet... She should have stayed a few minutes and taken Mary wherever she wanted to go.

The gifted wing was seldom used, there weren't many kids with 'extra human abilities' so only a select few classrooms were need every few years. There hadn't even been a gifted kid since two graduated in Bobbi's second year.

Running down an empty hallway her breathing was almost too loud for her to hear the quiet sobs down a dead end corridor. She froze and crept closer, peaking around the corner. Bobbi furrowed her brow, stepping around the wall and looking closer. Mary was small, small enough that Bobbi had missed the small girl tucked into the corner.

"Mary?" Bobbi inched forward, trying not to spook her, but at the sound of her name her head shot up.

"Bobbi!" The teenager barely had time to register the girl was moving before the full force of her body barrelled into her, nearly knocking her down. "You came back."

"I promised I would." Bobbi could feel Mary shaking as she cried, clinging to her desperately.


	6. To Find A Mockingbird

"I've got you, Kid." Bobbi's knees were starting to ache from kneeling on the hard floors, but she didn't say anything. Mary was still crying and clinging to her and she was nearly hysterical, starting to heave. "Hey, it's okay, slow breaths." There wasn't a class for what to do with crying kids, and she was an only child so she'd never been around younger kids much outside of school when she was growing up.

"You came back." Mary mumbled as her heaves lessened.

"Yeah, I promised I would, didn't I?" Bobbi tugged lightly on the ends of her hair to get her attention. "You want to tell me what happened?" Mary shook her head against Bobbi's shoulder. "You want to get out of here?" She tried a different tactic which earned her a nod.

When Mary finally stepped back and ducked her head down to her shoes Bobbi frowned; her eyes were red, her nose was running, she had tear tracks on her cheeks, and she'd clearly been crying for a while. Bobbi didn't know what to say so instead she started to lead her back to a more populated part of the school with a hand on her shoulder. By the time they were back to the cafeteria Mary had scrubbed at her face in an attempt to get rid of the evidence of her crying and Bobbi had texted her friends to call off the search.

"You up to eating?" She'd only really picked at her lunch and watched everyone else. Mary shrugged in response and inched closer to her when they spotted the two other seniors and their first years.

"Why don't we ditch the boys and go back to our dorm for a girls night in." Izzy was the one who suggested it, relieving Bobbi from having to think of something.

"But-" Fitz looked like a wounded puppy.

"Hey." Ward huffed, looking indignant.

"Junk food, soda, chick flicks..." Izzy enticed, ignoring the boys.

"That doesn't seem healthy." Simmons frowned disapprovingly.

"It's one night, Simmons, it won't kill you to have fun-" the older brunette started.

"I don't wanna." Mary's voice was small, but it was enough for everyone to stop and stare at her, making her flush and try to hide behind Bobbi.

"I think we'll skip this time, Iz." Bobbi decided, glancing at Mary. "Thanks though." She said goodbye to her friends - not that they noticed since the boys had started arguing with Hartley and Simmons about not being invited to girls night - and started back to her dorm room with Mary.

"You can go if you want." Mary peaked up at her with big brown eyes. "You don't have to stay because of me."

"I know I don't, but I want to stay with you." Mary frowned like it was a foreign concept that someone would want to stay with her. Mary was silent the rest of the way back to their room, despite Bobbi's attempts at conversation, no matter what it was about to the point where she stopped trying. Which actually seemed to be what she wanted.

"Bobbi?" Mary was sitting on her bed with her knees pulled up to her chest when she spoke.

"Yeah, Miniature?" Bobbi dropped her school bag on her bed and looked at the girl, the list of issues she seemed to have was a long one and she wasn't looking forward to writing her report to Agent Hill.

"Thank-you for finding me." Her bottom lip quivered a little, threatening more tears.

"You don't have to thank me for that, Kid, I promised I'd always come back to you." At that her bottom lip puckered out and a tear slipped passed her eye. "Did someone promise they would and then didn't come back?" Bobbi had read her file; foster kid since birth, more homes than years she's been at school, it was a near guarantee that someone had broken a promise to her.

"The Coopers." Bobbi almost didn't hear her, she got up and went to sit next to her, hesitantly putting a hand on her back. "We went to a carnival for Halloween when I was six and I was staying with the Coopers." A sinking sense of dread filled Bobbi as Mary spoke in a quiet, haunted voice. "There was a maze, one of the tall ones like in the movies." She nodded when Mary looked at her to make sure she was listening. "Paige Cooper and I went into the maze, but we went different ways and I got lost."

That sinking feeling only seemed to get worse and Bobbi had to focus on her breathing so she wouldn't try and find the Coopers and hurt them - because she knew in her gut that it was their fault somehow.

"I tried to find someone when I couldn't get out, and I tried to call for help, but no one heard me. Then it got dark..." Mary sniffed and scooted just a little closer to Bobbi, close enough that she could put an arm around her. "I couldn't find my way out and it was dark and no one came to find me... The people at the carnival took me back to social services the next day when they found me when they were taking everything away..."

"The next day?" Bobbi was torn between wanting to hurt the Coopers and wanting to comfort Mary. What kind of people would leave a 6-year-old at a carnival? No wonder she'd been so distressed when she got lost.

"At least at Saint Agnes' I know Sister Mary Charlotte always remembers me so I know I won't be lost again." What kind of monsters were they that they couldn't even take a 6-year-old to social services instead of abandoning her? Her file certainly didn't say anything about being abandoned at a carnival.

"Hey." Blue eyes waited for brown to look up to her, "I'll always remember you, I promise." Dark eyes ducked back down shyly.

"I'm hungry." Mary piped up ten minutes later when they'd just been sitting there.

"Then we should get some food in you." And just like the sad/scared/murderous-on-Bobbi's-part moment was over. "Good news, tonight is Chinese night." Each night at the cafeteria was a different food nationality to give the students some variety in their diets.

"Why? 'Cause I'm part Asian?" Mary huffed, glaring at her.

"No, the chefs here do an amazing satay and Peking duck." Bobbi shrugged, sending a quick text to her friends to meet for dinner if they wanted to, even if it was a little early.

"Oh." Mary flushed and Bobbi chuckled, rolling her eyes.

_********* _

"When do I find out why I'm special?" Mary was happily separating her vegetables and meats on her plate before eating them when she brought up the question. It took Bobbi a moment to remember that it had only been that morning that she took her placement tests.

"Oh, it's rather fascinating; you do the academic tests to decide what classes you'll take-" Simmons started, her face lighting up.

"-Simmons and I got top marks, obviously, we're working towards our doctorates-" Fitz chimed in and Mary had to resist the urge to giggle at his accent.

"-then the physical exams for the students here for combat training." The younger girl looked up at Bobbi, that's why she was here, she said. "And then the Index students do an abilities test."

"What are Index students?" Her brow furrowed in confusion. Bobbi recalled what her file said about possible powers, she didn't want to scare her off with thoughts of being labeled on the Index for the rest of her life.

"The Index is where people with abilities go; like Doctor Banner is on the Index for his... Uh... Problem." Simmons provided before Bobbi could think of what to say.

"But, Iron Man on the other hand would be in the science and tech division since his abilities are reliant on technology." Fitz added with a decisive nod.

"But, Index students are very rare, there hasn't been an Index student for three years." Simmons continued, and then, the conversation seemingly over, both her and Fitz turned back to their food in unison.

"Eat your vegetables." Bobbi pointed to the entire section of Mary's plate that was still full despite the rest of her plate being nothing more than scraps and crumbs.

"But, it's got weird lookin'... I don't know what it is." Mary scrunched her nose.

"It's Bok Choy, and if you don't like it eat around it." Bobbi watched with amusement as Mary shoved all of the offending green vegetable to the other side of her plate.

"So, I'm not an Index weirdo." The young brunette started, "and I'm definitely not a nerd - no offence-" she shot at Fitz and Simmons who both just shrugged. "-and I'm not that good at fighting 'cause I always get in trouble, so is there another type of special that goes here?"

But, she was a possible Index kid, and Bobbi didn't know how to tell her that.

"Well, there are all different types, but it's usually blanketed by those three categories." Simmons nodded, "though if you're not an academic then you're probably here for operations since communications is a far too basic skill to require juvenile training." Bobbi was sure Simmons didn't mean to sound condescending, but sometimes with the genius kids it just happened. Though looking at Mary she either didn't notice or didn't care.

"What happens when you finish school? 'Cause shouldn't you be at university if you're going to be doctors?" The poor girl looked confused as she stared at Fitz and Simmons.

"SCHOLAR is a subdivision of SHIELD for exceptional students too young to officially be recruited to agency, so we come here to further our education and training until we're old enough to go to one of the Academies." Simmons explained, "when we graduated we'll be given the opportunity to either join the Academy or go back to our old lives and have a handler keep an eye on us to make sure we don't use anything we learnt for ill intent."

"So I do get to leave?" The hope in her voice was nearly suffocating.

"Of course there are always options to leave; expulsions, family matters, inability to continue the coursework, illness, injury, graduation, early advancement-" Fitz started listing.

"-Fitz and I are hoping to achieve early advancement to SciTech in a couple of years." Simmons added.

"How injured?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry for the wait in updating, but I had a break over Easter.  
> And thankyou to all the kudos and the comments :)


	7. Does Not Compute, Skye

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The kid gets her hand on a computer... Hacking ensues

"Don't even think about it." Bobbi glared at Mary once they were back in their room in the girls dorms after dinner. The words had been running through her head for the last hour; _how injured?_ **Enough that you wouldn't be able to continue classes.**

"Think about what?" The girl looked overly innocent under her glare. Too much innocence was a giveaway.

"Do. Not. Hurt yourself." Bobbi spoke slowly, quietly, slightly threateningly. _How injured?_ Played back in her mind over and over again. "Promise me you won't hurt yourself or purposely be hurt so you can leave here."

"Why not?" Brown eyes glared back just as hard as blue, dropping all pretences of innocence. "If gets me out here I can be hurt for a little bit."

"Not just a little bit, you have to be nearly dead to be sent home, you could just as easily end up dead instead of at the orphanage." Bobbi snapped, was it really that bad that she was willing to almost die instead of be here?

"At least at the orphanage I'm not a prisoner." The kid had fire, she could admit.

"You're not a prisoner." Bobbi could feel her volume rising, but she couldn't help it.

"Then why can't I leave? Why am I here anyway? Why did that man kidnap me instead of taking me back." Mary was yelling too, her eyes welling with angry tears.

"How the hell am I supposed to know?" Possible powers unknown. "I was just told to take care of you, and that includes not letting you kill yourself."

"I don't need some stupid babysitter, I need to not be kept here." Before Bobbi could really register it the door was slamming shut after a whirlwind of dark hair, a picture frame fell off the wall near the door making the glass break.

Bobbi glared at the door, but didn't follow the girl. She needed to calm down before she went to find her or the shouting might start again. Day two with the kid and she'd already tried to run away, gotten a broken arm, gotten lost, and walked out after a shouting match. She definitely wasn't looking forward to her report to Agent Hill.

_How injured?_

It was that question that had started the whole argument. Bobbi swore that nothing had made her feel as much dread as that question. She'd only had the kid for two days and she was already questioning her sanity. She thought she'd been kidnapped, but surely someone went to her guardians (because she didn't have known parents) before just taking her. Mary clearly wouldn't believe anyone until someone she actually knew told her they were the good guys.

With a sigh, Bobbi ran a hand through her hair before heading for the door. She didn't know if Mary would try and run again despite her promise that she wouldn't. Except when she opened the door Mary definitely hadn't run far. Sitting on the floor of the opposite wall with her knees pulled up, Mary looked nearly the same as just a few hours before when she was lost and crying.

Bobbi didn't say anything as she went and sat next to the girl, staring straight ahead. There was one thing that Barbara Morse knew when she was sitting in the hall with her 11-year-old charge; Mary Sue Poots was going to be an uphill battle to mentor.

"If I can get hold of one of the nuns so they can talk to you, will you believe I only want to look out for you?" Bobbi asked after a moment, she'd never noticed how uncomfortable the floor was until today.

"Maybe." Mary shrugged, "I won't really hurt myself just to leave."

"Good." It wasn't exactly the promise she'd asked for, but she'd take it. "Don't scare me like that again."

"What do you care?" The fiery defiance was still there, Bobbi had the feeling it would always be there, simmering just under the surface of every smile or word that fell from her lips. "You've only known me for a day."

"I care because..." Why did she care so much about the kid? Sure she liked Fitz and Simmons, but she'd never cared for the. This much. "Because very kid needs someone to care and you've got me." She ended lamely, "so deal with it."

_********* _

Mary arrived at S.C.H.O.L.A.R on a Thursday. She got lost on a Friday. And she found a computer on the Saturday.

Mary had woken up when Bobbi left early in the morning when it was still dark - something about Tai Chi and working out - and couldn't get back to sleep.

The nuns at St Agnes' always said it was a sin and she'd go to hell for snooping, but if she was living with an axe murderer she wanted to know. So far she hadn't found any blood covered axes in any of her foster families closets, but she liked to think it was because she always checked for herself. There weren't any bloody axes in Bobbi's closet either, which Mary took as a good sign.

Mary found that Bobbi had some weird looking underwear (black and lacy and way too small, from the looks) but she wasn't the only older girl she'd lived with that had those underwear. Must be an older girl thing, Mary shrugged. The next drawer was just regular clothes, boring. Before she could get to the next drawer she spotted something metallic with a cord under the bed. Abandoning the dresser Mary knelt down and pulled out the computer, switching it on without a second thought.

There was only one computer at the orphanage and that was in the office, and she was never at a foster home long enough to get to play with one properly. Mary looked at the door, how long would Bobbi be gone? But, then something appeared on the screen and she stopped thinking in favour of pressing some buttons as commands appeared on the screen. This was easy, she mused, the commands were all basic and easy to get past to the point that within the minute she was able to open a browser. What could she do? She could do anything now that she had the Internet.

First Mary searched her name, to see if the nuns said she was missing. Nothing.., well, that wasn't entirely true, there were millions of responses, but none of them looked like they meant her so she quickly got bored.

By the time Bobbi got back to her room she was energised from her morning work out and it was late enough that she should probably wake Mary... Except when she got back the girl in question was Latin on her bed, snoring softly with a computer on her chest blaring noise. Bobbi crept over, peering at a series of cat videos on YouTube... On her computer!

The hell?" Bobbi frowned, taking the computer, she always made sure it was password protected, how on earth did Mary get into it?

After scanning her computer Bobbi found that Mary had managed to remove the password, GoogleMaps herself despite the GPS blocking placed on the whole school, change her school profile picture in the database to an angry wet kitten, and change her background to a picture of the young brunette herself... How the Hell did she manage to do any of that? "Hey, Kid." Bobbi nudged the girl until the soft snores stopped and her eyes blinked open. "Kid, up." She urged, waiting until she managed to push herself up and had finished rubbing her eyes.

"Crap!" Mary swore, eyeing the computer and its owner, realising she must have fallen asleep and been caught with the computer.

"Yeah, we'll get to that." Bobbi waved her off, sitting on the bed. "How did you get passed the password?" She furrowed her brow, it's not like it was easy one either with a random mix up uppercase, lowercase, numbers and characters.

"'S' easy." Mary yawned with a shrug.

"And how did you get passed the GPS block on the school?" She'd also set up directions back to St Agnes' before discarding it - probably because it was a four and a half hour drive. "The whole point is that no one can trace it or locate it."

"Doesn't work then." Mary shrugged again, "I just told it to do what I wanted and at first it didn't, but then I made it."

"You just made it do what you wanted?" Bobbi was stunned, she wasn't a computer genius by any account, but she knew how to get things done well enough, but she'd never heard of anyone just bypassing the GPS blocks so simply. "Show me." She shoved her computer back at Mary who looked puzzled.

"Huh?" She looked at the older girl like an alien. "Aren't I in trouble for snooping and taking your things?"

"Maybe. Show me how you did it and I'll think about it." Bobbi dismissed, watching the girls hands and the screen carefully.

"Did I do something wrong?" Her fingers hadn't moved, but her voice was uncertain. Bobbi looked up, she looked scared, nervous, she pursed her lips for a moment.

"It was wrong to take my computer, yes." She conceded, and she wanted to know what else she'd look through when they were finished. "But, we'll talk about that later, but this is more important. You may be CS gifted."

"What's CS gifted?" Her nose wrinkled in confusion. "Is that why I'm here? Is that why they took me?"

No. Possible powers unknown.

"Maybe... It's computer sciences, people who are gifted with computers."

"Oh." Her eyebrows shot up and she focussed on the screen this time, determined to prove herself. Maybe she wasn't just an orphan that no one wanted. "Um, it said that so I clicked here." Mary explained, her fingers darting over the keys of the laptop, pointing obstacles and solutions out to Bobbi as they appeared. "And then I make it stop blocking me like that."

'Like that' Bobbi found out was a series of speed typing, clicks, unintelligible characters flying across the screen, and a smug smile from Mary. "It was harder the first time, but this time I knew how to do it quicker."

"Holy Hell!" Bobbi just stared at the screen, flashing back at her that access had been granted. An 11-year-old had just hacked through the GPS blocks on the school... And she didn't even think she knew what it meant.


	8. Sing Me A Song Of The Mockingbird

 "The kid hacked the schools servers and GPS block after cracking my password with a broken arm." Bobbi told Agent Hill bluntly as a greeting on Saturday night. "She didn't even know it was a big deal, she was just playing around with the thing."

"Did you take her to the Tech department, get her tested to make sure it wasn't a fluke?' Hill questioned, writing some notes down.

"They said for eleven, untrained, and it being one of her first times on a computer she's practically a savant with CS." Bobbi glanced over to the other bed where the girl was blissfully sleeping, once again snoring softly.

"What about her other results?" Hill made another note, pursing her lips slightly.

"Medical was normal, except for the idiot doctor that didn't notice she had a broken wrist." Even through the computer Maria Hill could feel the anger of the teenager. "Academic was average for her education level. And she hasn't done the physical yet, but I can tell you first hand she has no problems with running."

"Tell me about this broken arm."

"Mary tried to run away - I need to talk about that - and when I got her back to the room she said she was hurt, her wrist was turning black so I took her to medical where an x-ray said her wrist was broken." Bobbi reported dutifully, "the idiot doctor on call missed it when he released her."

"Any progress with her powers?"

"Only that she insists she doesn't have any." She resisted the urge to question if Agent Hill was sure Mary had powers. "Whatever she can do she doesn't know about it."

"Hm." Hill made another note. "Now what about the running away?" It had only been a few minute call so far, but this was what Bobbi had been waiting all night for.

"The first night Mary tried to run away because she thought she'd been kidnapped... She had no idea why she was taken or why she's here, the Agent that brought her didn't say a single word to her and she thought she was going back to the orphanage." Hill pursed her lips and nodded, "she's a scared, confused kid who's convinced she's been kidnapped. She promised she wouldn't try and run away again, but why didn't the Agents go to her like a normal recruit, explain everything to her?"

"That's classified." Hill monotoned, giving her a hard stare.

"Right." Bobbi nodded, classified beyond her level 1 clearance.

"A level eight clearance overridden by Director Fury." The young blondes eyes widened, something about little Mary Poots had been classified by Director Fury? "Anything else?"

"I told her I'd try and get one of the nuns to talk to her so she'd know she wasn't kidnapped." Though thinking back on it, she really shouldn't have made the suggestion without consulting a superior. On the other hand Mary had looked so young and frightened. "I know it's not protocol, but it would really help in getting her settled and trusting us."

"Don't make promises you can't keep, Morse." Hill scolded.

"Yes, Ma'am." Bobbi winced, when Agent Hill had come to recruit her that was one of the first things she'd said; her first lesson she called it. Don't make promises because then they can't be broken. She'd already made Mary promises, so now she had to make sure she didn't break them.

"If you can get hold of Agent Forty-Two at the orphanage I won't stop you, but I'm not helping you, this is your mistake, you can fix it."

"Yes, Ma'am." That was as close to an approval as she was going to get and she wasn't going to argue over it. Besides, they both knew that Hill had just helped Bobbi by saying there was an agent at the orphanage.

_********* _

"Where are we going?" Mary was bursting with questions on Sunday morning after breakfast when Bobbi said she had a surprise. "Is it fun? Are Leo and Jemma gonna be there? It's not to see a shrink is it? Can-"

"We're here." Bobbi cut in, half amused, half tired of the girls questions.

"Huh?" Mary wrinkled her nose at the door they'd stopped at, a plain beige door that read Sci-Tech Equipment.

"Well, since you tested so well in CS you're going to need a few things before you start classes." Bobbi opened the door and couldn't help but smirk at the look of awe on her face. Each division of the school had a student store with anything and everything they might need for their studies. She had worked with half the weapons from the Operations store, Fitz had taken apart the first computer he got from Sci-Tech, and Simmons had insisted they get the exact microscope she liked. "You can pick out whichever computer you want."

"What's the catch?" Mary turned on her with narrowed eyes.

"No catch." Bobbi denied, holding her hands up in surrender.

"There's always a catch."

"You pick a computer, you use it, you learn CS. No catch." It sounded simple, but Mary had heard simple before and it hadn't worked out.

"You teach me more computer stuff?" She clarified warily.

"Well, not me personally, but a teacher will." Bobbi confirmed, "but you need a computer for that."

"I pick it?" Bobbi nodded through Mary's narrowed eyes. "It's mine?" Another nod. "I get to keep it? Don't have to give it back? I can do whatever I want?"

"Yes. It's yours, for you." She tried to sound soothing, not frustrated at her kids apparent trust issues that had to have come from somewhere. Whoever hurt her kid was going to regret it.

"What if i break it?"

"Well, I don't want you to break it, but if it accidentally gets broken then we'll get you a new one." She assured, earning another distrusting look. "No catches, Mary, it's yours and if something happens I won't get mad if it's an accident." Mary stared for a long time, trying to figure Bobbi out, in her experience people didn't give her things without wanting something back. But, Bobbi didn't seem like the other foster families.

"Are there blue ones?" Mary eventually asked, which for some weird reason made Bobbi smile.

"Blue, pink, red, purple... Every colour of the rainbow." The blonde confirmed, leading her over to an isle in the deceptively large too. That was full of nothing but computers.

"Cool." Just looking at these she knew they were way better than the foster families and the orphanages computers. "I really get to choose?"

"As long as you do one thing for me." Bobbi nodded, Mary sighed, there was always a catch. "Can you put my computer back the way it was?" Mary couldn't contain the giggle that burst forth at the look of pleading exasperation on her face.

"'Kay." She agreed, her eyes sliding past the teenager to the computers. Bobbi was right, there were all colours of the rainbow, plus gold and silver and grey and black.

"Okay, so I just have the basic tech since I'm not a Sci-Tech recruit, but you'll probably want a more advanced system." Bobbi was saying as Mary looked at all the descriptions next to the computers.

"That one looks cool." The younger girl ended up pointing to a sky blue computer after wrinkling her nose at the numbers and letters that confused her.

"What about the specs?" Bobbi hummed, skating her fingers over the mousepad to wake it up.

"Dunno," Mary shrugged, eyeing the screen. "Don't know what it means, but it looks cool."

"A hacker that doesn't know what computer specs are?" The blonde snorted to herself. "Okay, let's get this one."

"It's really mine?" Mary asked again when she was handed a box with a picture of the blue computer.

"Really yours." Mary hugged the box to her chest, but didn't look entirely convinced. "Now let's go get the rest of the things you'll need for classes tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?"

"Yeah, no grace period if you come in late, I guess." Bobbi shrugged, "your classes are based off your test scores from Friday so you won't be behind anyone else in the class because everyone has their own coursework. It's a good setup if you come in late, I guess."

"Why did I come late? If I was always going to be kidnapped why wasn't it at the start of school?" It was a valid question, but Bobbi had been told early on by Agent Hill not to ask questions above her clearance level.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry for not updating, but I wanted to wait until after I saw Age Of Ultron... Oh, my God! It is amazing!
> 
> And sorry for the fact that this is a really crappy chapter, next one will be better, but after the report to Hill I sort of drew a blank on the rest of the chapter.


	9. Chapter 9

"Agent May teaches History, so you'll have her every Monday, Wednesday and Friday." Bobbi explained, looking over Mary's schedule with her. "May is..." How not to scare off the girl? "She's fair. And informative." She literally couldn't be any more diplomatic if she tried. "Agent Carter is Social Studies and she's kind of awesome, she's the granddaughter of one of SHIELD's founders." Mary blinked, was that mean to mean something to her? "The teachers here change a lot because they're all Agents too, but most of them are off active duty."

"Is that what happens when spies get old? They become teachers?" Mary wrinkled her nose.

"No, but when they get injured some of them prefer teaching over desk duty." Or others, like May, just retired from field work all together and were assigned teaching. "Finish up, I'll take you to maths before I head to class." Bobbi urged, noting that Mary had mostly just picked at her food. She knew it had been a stressful few days for the girl, but she still had to eat properly.

"When do I get to learn computer stuff?" She abandoned her schedule in favour of her scrambled eggs, but that didn't stop the questions.

"You have a beginners CS class every afternoon at two, once your regular classes have finished." And Bobbi herself had two hours of combat and espionage every day since that was her specialty.

"Cool." Mary shrugged, pushing her half empty plate away. The walk to her first class was silent, though Bobbi suspected that it had something to do with the younger girls nerves more than anything. "Where is everyone?" The classroom was woefully empty, only seven other kids and they all looked older than her.

"This is it." Bobbi shrugged, "not many younger kids and they try to keep the ages close together for an 'authentic classroom setting'." She scoffed, it was a spy school and they wanted to pretend it was a normal school. "Everyone has their own coursework, but it's all in the same class to encourage mixing or something like that."

"That's weird." Mary frowned, eyeing the seven other students. Three girls she didn't know, two boys she didn't know, but Leo and Jemma were there too.

"Yeah. But, you get used to it." Bobbi agreed, nudging her over to an empty desk. "If you need me just tell Simmons or Fitz and they can get hold of me, okay?"

"I'm not a baby." Mary rolled her eyes. "I've done the new kid thing before, I know how it goes."

"Okay then," the blonde held her hands up in a show of faith. "See you later, Miniature."

"Hello, Mary." Before Bobbi was even out the door she could hear Simmons' proper English voice talking to her kid. Good. At least there would be people she knew so she wouldn't be alone. "First day of classes, isn't it exciting?" She held in a laugh, from knowing Mary for half a week she already knew that the girl would never associate classes with excitement.

"Nice of you to join us, Morse." Agent May monotoned when she got to History ten minutes before the class was set to start. "See me after class."

"Yes, Ma'am." Bobbi grimaced, on Friday Agent May had been nicer about her skipping class than she'd ever seen her be, but this wasn't Friday anymore and she had skipped class regardless of if Mary needed her.

"Good luck with that." Izzy smirked to her friend.

"Yeah, it's gonna be a party." The blonde rolled her eyes. "Tell my parents I love them."

"She won't kill you." Izzy denied confidently, brightly even. "Nowhere to hide the body."

"Great." She dropped her head onto her desk. Because if that was the only thing stopping May from killing her, she could probably find a way to dispose of her body.

All through History Bobbi wasn't sure if the growing pit in her stomach was from worrying about Mary or the continuity of her own life when the class was finished. Realistically she knew that Mary was 11, she could look after herself for a few hours. And she was even alone, Fitz and Simmons were there, and she was in class anyway. How much trouble could an 11-year-old get into in class? On the other hand Agent Hill - the second in command of S.H.I.E.L.D - had put her in charge of a kid whose file had been classified by Director Fury; something had be special about her to have the higher ups so interested in her.

"Miss Morse." Bobbi had obediently waited after class for Agent May.

"Agent May." The blonde steeled herself, standing back straight at attention.

"You have a kid now." May was a known woman of few words - she could do an entire lesson and only speak three sentences.

"Yes, Ma'am." Even breaths in and out in an attempt to keep a straight face.

"That doesn't mean your training gets neglected." May admonished with a stern look... Which was all that different from her normal expression.

"Yes, Ma'am." Bobbi nodded even though May wasn't even looking at her.

"Go." She had been waiting for more scolding, but instead she was dismissed to her next class.

"Huh." Bobbi mused to herself, that must be as close to a conversation that anyone had been with Agent May... Well, at least in the last five years if the rumours were to be believed.

*****

Week 2

Mary kicked her feet back and forth, staring at the ground, this wasn't her first time in the principals office at a new school, but it was the first time that her stomach was twisting because they said they were calling her Senior mentor. Bobbi.

Computers were easy. Almost too easy for her. She'd been taking everyone in during her CS classes, absorbing it like a sponge. But, she had to go back to the medical wing during lunch to check that her wrist was healing and she'd seen him again. The 'Agent' that had taken her from the Robinsons. The one that kidnapped her. Because no matter what Bobbi said she knew that being taken somewhere against her will was kidnapping. She'd promised Bobbi that she wouldn't try and run away again. But, that didn't mean she trusted everyone at this school.

"Mary?" Bobbi finally made it to the office. "What happened? Are you okay?" Mary shrugged, she didn't want to face Bobbi. She didn't want to see how disappointed she was going to be.

"Miss Morse, you're here." Some woman with red hair called Foot or something like that came out of the office. Mary had made the mistake of laughing at her name. Not that she had much room to make fun of names given what the nuns had called her.

"Agent Hand." Bobbi stood back up, though she did keep one hand on Mary's shoulder. Agent Victoria Hand, level 8, usually stationed at the Triskellion, but every agent had to do a mandatory 3 months at S.C.H.O.L.A.R so she was filling in as principal. Bobbi didn't really know much about her, but if she was level 8 she was good, and the look on her face was anything but happy.

"Would you like to tell Morse why you're here, Miss Poots?" Agent Hand directed a hard glare down to the girl who shrunk down a little.

"Mary?" Bobbi urged gently, but she just shrugged again.

"My office." Hand ordered, pointing behind her.

"Come on, Kid." The blonde sighed.

"I understand that the child is somehow important." Hand started when they were all sitting, moving some papers in front of her. "But, that does not mean she can do whatever she wants." Mary kicked at the leg of the big desk sullenly. She wanted to be out of here, but she didn't want to be in trouble or get Bobbi upset. "If expulsion was an option, I'd take it."

"What happened?" Expulsion wasn't an easy feat at a school like theirs.

This happened." Hand slid over the papers she'd had in front of her with a glare at Mary.

01001000 01100101 01101100 01110000 00100000 01101101 01100101 00101110 00100000 01001101 01100001 01110010 01111001 00100000 01010011 01110101 01100101 00100000 01010000 01101111 01101111 01110100 01110011 00101110 00100000 01001011 01101001 01100100 01101110 01100001 01110000 01110000 01100101 01100100 00101110 00100000 01001000 01100101 01101100 01110000

Bobbi knew binary code when she saw it, she had taken the basic CS class last semester, learning enough to skate by, but not nearly gifted enough for the intermediate class. But, the ones and zeroes on the pages in front of her meant nothing, but if it was enough to land her in Hand's office with Mary it had to be important.

"Miss Poots used her recent Computer Sciences lessons to to plant this message along with a picture of the school on a map to a missing children's forum online." Mary slid low in her chair when Hand said that.

"Kid?" It the was sound of betrayal in Bobbi's voice that was the worst. "What did you do, Mary?"

"I wanted to go back." Mary mumbled, her lips barely moving.

"Don't mumble." Agent Hand snapped.

"I wanted to go back." Mary repeated, louder, glaring right back at Hand instead of facing Bobbi. Bobbi was nice.

"What does it say?" Bobbi focussed on even breathing. The kid made no secret of the fact that she wanted proof that she hadn't been kidnapped - and Bobbi had been working on finding whoever Agent 42 was - but she had actually done anything since the runaway attempt on her first night. Bobbi thought she might actually be adjusting to the school. So why did it hurt so much?

"Help me. Mary Sue Poots. Kidnapped." Hand pursed her lips. "On a loop. This has severely compromised the safety of the school. The location, the implications of kidnapping, the other students and Agents at this facility have all been compromised by this little stunt."

"I didn't mean for anyone to be in danger." Mary's voice was small and her bottom lip puckered out a little.

"Then what did you mean?" Bobbi sounded hurt and that just made Mary feel worse. "What exactly did you want to happen when you sent that message out?"

"I just wanted someone to find me."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, sorry about this; prize for most forgetful writer? Me!  
> I had this all written and waiting and just forgot to post it, then wondered why no one was responding to it.


	10. Mockingnerd

"Just... Do your homework or something." Bobbi hadn't looked at Mary since they left the principals office. That was an hour ago.

"You're mad." It wasn't a question, it was a statement.

"You think?" Bobbi snorted, rolling her eyes.

"I didn't want to make you mad." Her brown eyes darted down sadly.

"Well, what did you think would happen?" The blonde teenager snapped, turning an icy glare on the younger girl. "Did you think everything would be okay? That you'd just get away with it, go back to the orphanage and think everything was fine?" Bobbi got up, tossing her book on her bed and heading for the door. "Try not to break anymore school safety rules while I'm out."

"Wait-" the door slammed before Mary could protest. Great! Her plea for help had been taken down once it was discovered, Agent Hand had yelled a lot and said she was on probation, and Bobbi was mad at her.

Probation. It felt a lot more like being super grounded. No excursions off campus - she didn't even know that was allowed - no extra privileges, no TV, no computers. Nothing fun at all. Which was proven by the shiny silver bracelet locked around her non-broken wrist that Agent Hand said would stop her from breaking the rules again. It had felt like a good idea at the time to get through the schools blocking system to put the kidnap message out there. Maybe someone on the missing children's website would notice it, and come rescue her, but now it had been taken down and she was stuck here. And now Bobbi hated her too.

Simmons and Fitz would probably hate her too when they found out and they were her only friends close to her age. It made sense, every family always ended up sending her back, and sure Bobbi promised that she wouldn't, but that didn't mean she didn't want to. Or that Agent Hand wouldn't try to.

What did she even mean that she wasn't allowed to expel her?

** _*****_ **

"I'm gonna kill that kid." Bobbi vowed, walking into Izzy and Simmons' room without knocking.

"Big turnaround from kill anyone who wrongs her." Izzy snorted, barely looking up from her homework.

"I strongly advise against-" Simmons actually looked concerned.

"I'm not actually gonna kill the kid." Bobbi rolled her eyes. "I may _want_ to, but murdering eleven-year-olds isn't really my style.

"What'd she do? Hack your S.O.C.I.A.L page again?" Izzy glanced over, took note of her friends demeanour, then turned fully to face her.

"No." She threw herself onto Izzy's bed with a grace that she always seemed to have. "Hacked the school... **Again**. Then got onto a missing kids forum and left a kidnap message and the school location."

"Oh." Well, yeah, definitely worse than social media pranks, Izzy nodded.

"I thought we were making progress, you know? She wasn't running away, she was going to classes, stopped insisting she'd been kidnapped all the time." Bobbi sighed, running a hand through her hair. "Hand wanted to expel her. Now she's on tech probation."

"Harsh."

"The kid told the whole world that not only does the school exist, but also where it is and that we kidnap little kids." Bobbi let out an agitated huff. "'Harsh' wasn't harsh enough."

"Take a look, Simmons, the big bad spy wannabe is cranky because her feelings got hurt." Izzy smirked, earning a pillow being thrown at her head. "The kid's... A kid. She messed up, she's being punished, you don't need to."

"Why did I even come to you?" The blonde demanded, "you're meant to support my anger, not reason with me."

"If you wanted that you would have gone to Ward."

"I hate you." Bobbi shot a glare at her friend as she got up.

"Aren't you glad you were assigned to someone who can handle feelings?" The blonde heard Izzy saying to Simmons as she left the room again.

"I handle feelings fine."

"Repressing isn't handling!"

**_ ***** _ **

** Week 3 **

At the beginning of the second month of school the head of the Junior department - Agent Hill - would assess the top Senior students in all categories and the top five would be announced. The top student would get to be involved in an actual S.H.I.E.L.D mission. The other top four would run mock missions within the school. There was usually three events like that during the year, but this was the first time Bobbi was going to be eligible. She'd been waiting four years for her chance at a mission and she'd been working her ass of to try and get into the top of her year.

"Ward, Grant." Was the first name Hill called at the announcement. "Palamas, Kara." A girl in her hand to hand class. "Morse, Barbara." She might have imagined the half smile the agent gave her. "Holmes, Zachary." A boy that had started the same year as her in the SciTech division. "And congratulations to this semesters top Senior; Andrews, Jessica who will sitting in during an upcoming mission." Everyone applauded politely as the five students stood up behind Agent Hill. "Congratulations on not ignoring your studies and being a group of morons." As far as congratulations went it was missing something.

"Well, some of us." Zach scoffed, but Bobbi didn't take it personally, all SciTech students seemed to have a superiority complex. As much as she loved them even Fitz and Simmons acted superior sometimes.

"Andrews, you will be sitting in on the back end of a level three fact finding mission." Agent Hill handed the girl a folder marked classified.

"Thank-you, Ma'am." She was in SciTech too, Bobbi had a feeling that she shared at least one of the advanced classes with Simmons.

"The rest of you; each of you will be assigned a mock mission designed to test you. Each of you will have a team; if you have a junior student they will be a part of your team, you're can have up to five students including yourself and your junior, even if you are hoping for specialist training you need someone to run back end, so don't bother arguing, Ward." agent Hill continued in the same monotone, earning a frown from Ward who now had to work with Fitz. And she would have to work with Mary. "Have your teams registered with Agent hand by six am tomorrow morning, if your team is not registered by that time it will automatically be registered as you and your junior student. No changes, swaps or alterations."

Ward looked ready to protest, but you don't get to be one of the top five students by arguing with the deputy director of S.H.I.E.L.D. Besides, just because Ward wanted to be a specialist didn't mean he didn't need someone to run the back end. Bobbi on the other hand was being forced to work with a completely untrained 11-year-old with a tech Nanny. At least Fitz was a genius doing college level class work.

"Agent Hill..." Bobbi bit her lip, her eyes darting to the side.

"I'll see you soon, Morse." Hill dismissed.

The group waiting for Bobbi and Ward after Hill dismissed them was small; the same group that they usually ate with. Hartley, Simmons, Fitz, Mary and Triplett. Hartley because they'd met on the two girls' first day at S.C.H.O.L.A.R, the three younger kids because they tended to tag along wherever the Seniors went, and Triplett because... None of them really knew when in the last two years they'd picked the young Legacy into their group. Grandson of a Howling Commando who fraught alongside Captain America.

"Nerd alert." Hartley smirked at them as Palamas, Holmes and Andrews went their own ways.

"Don't be jealous or I won't let you on my team."

"What's the big deal? You just fake at being a spy like little kids." Mary huffed, kicking her foot on the floor. "The other kids at Saint Agnes' do it all the time." Bobbi was trying, she really was, but Mary was making it really hard to move past the hacking incident.

"Morse." Agent Hill cut the conversation short.

"You're coming with me, Kid." Bobbi ground out, a hand on the younger girls shoulder guiding her over to Hill as well. "Mary, this is Agent Maria Hill."

"Poots." Hill looked down at the child with vague disapproval. "Reports say you've been a trouble maker." Mary shrugged in response. "You should think about behaving if you ever want to use a computer again."

"Go see if Fitz and Simmons want to teach you something." Clearly Mary was in one of her more disagreeable moods.

"What's the problem, Morse?" They both kept theirs on the girl as she walked away - not in the direction of Fitz and Simmons. Bobbi let out a sigh, what wasn't wrong?

"Half the time it's great; she goes to classes, smiles, laughs, she's this annoying little brat and it's kinda cute." The blonde let out a small smile, those moments weren't so much in the last week. "And then she becomes insufferable, insisting she was kidnap, talking back at every turn, standing right next to me when I'm trying to use something electronic so it cuts out." She narrowed her blue eyes at her mentor who was very clearly smirking in an attempt not to laugh. "It's not funny," she really did try not to whine. "I haven't been able to check my S.O.C.I.A.L page in a week."

"Poor teenager." Hill rolled her eyes.

"I hate you." Bobbi grumbled, first Izzy just reasoned with her now Hill was mocking her.

"I'm still your superior, Morse, remember that." The older woman warned with an arching eyebrow.

"Fine... I hate you, _Ma'am_."

"She's eleven, she'll get over it." Hill eyed the teenager. "What might help is if you had any luck in finding Agent forty-two?"

"No." Bobbi scoffed, "how am I supposed to when I can't use a computer? And why should I after her stunt last week?"

"Because you wouldn't be so angry if you didn't care about the kid." Hill smirked before walking away like a true person in charge.


	11. Chapter 11

Maria walked into the room where she knew the kid was. All 11 years of anger and resentment sitting on her bed scribbling in a book with furious abandon. "You show that paper." Maria encouraged, resisting the urge to smirk, especially when the girl in question turned a withering glare on her. Morse was right, the kid was cute. "Careful though, it might give you a paper cut for revenge."

"I remember you." Mary's glare gave way to distrust. "You were at the school once when I was staying with the Freedmans'." Maria let herself sit at one of the desks. "Miss Fletcher said you were a scholarship scout."

"Yes." Maria confirmed, that had been the day after Fury had dropped the girls file on her desk. "Are you the reason they kidnapped me and won't let me leave?"

"No." Fury had requisitioned a check on all known 0-8-4's after the incident with the Teseract and Loki's sceptre, wanting to make sure all were accounted for and that the dangerous ones were in S.H.I.E.L.D's custody. A report on an 0-8-4 from China, dead teams, then a hidden protocol in the foster system days after the level 8 Agent that authorised it had died had raised the directors suspicions. "You are." A village massacred, teams of dead agents, the only surviving agent had dropped off the grid right after the baby was left at the orphanage, and possible powers unknown. "You are the reason you are here in this school for gifted children."

"Did you know I was good at computers? 'Cause I didn't even know before." Maybe she was a technopath, Maria mused before dismissing it, if she was the bracelet wouldn't stop her from using a computer.

"You are also the reason that you're not allowed to leave right now; what you did last week was very foolish." She chose to ignore that question. Lying and not answering were two very different things and for some reason lying to children felt wrong.

"Like I haven't heard that in the last week." Mary rolled her eyes, turning her attention back to her book.

"It was foolish and dangerous to not only you, but the entire organisation."

"Got it the first time." The girl mumbled. Clearly the opportunity for a conversation with the girl was gone.

"You can leave the school for day trips and such once you are off probation." Maria stood up and walked to stand next to the girl. A series of ones and zeros stared back at her from the pages like a hypnotising word search with no end. "Until then," she lifted the girls wrist and bent down, speaking into the cool metal. "Alpha override, amend restriction; two feet." A grouping of three green lights flashed once. "You're stopping the idiot that cares about you from helping you." With those parting words Deputy Director Hill left the room and the girl frowning between her wrist and the door.

"That was quick." Morse was waiting in the hallway, leaning against the opposite wall with her arms crossed.

"Angry kid." Hill mused, leaning next to the teenager.

"You're telling me." Bobbi scoffed, grumbling under her breath. "Little brat."

"I changed the restriction on her bracelet, you should be fine with computers now." Maria could almost feel the relief Bobbi gave off. Teenagers and their tech. "You better do well on your mission, Morse, the eights and up have a betting pool going."

"Got it." Morse nodded, it was weirdly confidence inspiring that the Deputy Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. was betting on her success.

*****

"I can have up to five on my team. Me and the Kid are predetermined." Bobbi had sprawled herself on Izzy's bed. "If you want in, Iz, we're up to four because you've got to bring Simmons."

"So that leaves one spot and it can't be Ward." Izzy surmised, yanking his picture off their planning board.

Bobbi let out a yawn, eyeing the board for a moment. "And Fitz, Ward's stuck with him." The Scottish boys picture came down too. No one knew what type of mission it would be so they were trying to choose a flexible team. Not that they had much flexibility with half of the team taken by u trained first years.

"Kaminsky can hold his own in combat." They had a list of combat students and one of SciTech kids in an attempt to find someone who could work with them on an undetermined op.

"He creeps me out." The blonde wrinkled her nose.

"Jacobs?"

"Broken leg, if we don't when it is we could be stuck with an injured agent." Those two pictures were taken down too.

Bobbi frowned at the board, either they were too picky or there weren't that many good candidates for their team. "God, I hope Hand is still up." She sat up and studied the pictures left on the board. "What about Trip? Boy has been training since he was in diapers."

"He's smart so he could help with an info Op." Izzy mused, "muscle for brute force. And the legacy thing looks good too."

"So... Trip?" Bobbi sat up, blinking at the board. Her, Izzy, Trip, untrained but smart Simmons, and untrained, injured, can't use a computer Mary. Not her ideal team, but it could be worse.

"Guess so." Hartley cleared off the board - back to its regular photo board - and checked her watch. "You should get to Hand or it'll just be you and the Kid."

The race to Agent Hands office was more of a leisurely stroll through the empty halls. Sure it was after curfew, but that usually meant the everyone else was in bed, and the Agents were usually fine with it as long it wasn't groups of students and they didn't leave the building. The desk lamp was on in the principals office, but the desk itself was empty. Bobbi worried her bottom lip between her teeth for all of a second before making up her mind. Agent Hill said they had morning to register their teams, it was barely midnight. It was easy to pick the lock, one of the first things taught in class, surely the principals office would have better security than a lock that could be picked?

Bobbi crept over to the computer on the desk, freezing when she heard a noise. "Shit." She swore under her breath, Agent Hand was in the adjoining bathroom. The computer was right there, so easy to input her team, but so easy to get caught too. She glanced at the screen; the other three had already submitted their teams - Ward typically only had himself and Fitz - and the form with her name on it only had Mary added. Another glance at the bathroom to make sure Hand was still in there. Bobbi clicked into her form and quickly amended the team. Hartley, Simmons, Trip, Mary... Attached to an extraction for another mission. Well, that just wouldn't do, she hadn't worked her ass off for four years to just be another teams extraction team.

"Sorry, Kara, I don't do extraction." She mumbled as she switched her team out for the other girls'. "What else?" Ward and Fitz were on a two man mission to disable some device, they could keep that. Holmes was tapped for recovery of 'alien' artefact. "Bingo." Another open mission on the computer was to infiltrate an enemy base, take out the enemy, and rescue a victim. Bobbi shot another look to the bathroom before adding her team to that mission and carefully setting everything back to the way it was just as the toilet flushed. She could hear the tap running as she clicked the door closed and re-locked it.

*****

Mary whined as something consistently poked at her. "Kid." She shoved her head under her pillow, hoping it would go away and let her sleep. "Time to get up, Kid." Her brain cleared enough to recognise that it was Bobbi. "If you wake up you can have candy for breakfast..."

Well, that certainly woke her up. "Candy?" She peeked her eyes open and saw the blonde kneeling next to her bed with a smirk.

"No candy." Bobbi denied, earning a whine.

"Thought this was a truce or somethin'?" Her hopeful look turned into a glare.

"It is. Now, get up." Bobbi yanked her covers back and stood up to go switch on the light.

"What time is it?" Mary reluctantly sat up, rubbing her eyes.

"Five-thirty, get dressed." Something soft hit her head before falling into her lap.

"Try again in the morning." She reached for her blanket only to have a pair of hands grip her upper arms and lift her out of bed.

"If you get dressed and come with me now you can have one piece of candy after breakfast." Bobbi offered, she looked far too awake for the current time.

"Five."

"One and I'll convince Agent Hand to let you off campus by the end of the month."

"Three and I get this stupid bracelet off."

"One." Bobbi was very adamant about that. "And one for everyday that you come." Mary narrowed her eyes, this was a long term thing? "And I'll-" a breath out through her nose. "-help me out here, I just want my happy kid back."

"You'll stop being mad at me?" Brown eyes were hopeful and her bottom lip was puckered out slightly. Is that really all it would take? The last week had been rocky with Mary steadily going from dejected and remorseful to resentful and angry whilst Bobbi had been keeping her distance... Okay so Hartley said she'd been downright cold to the Kid, but she'd felt justified in her anger.

"I'll stop being angry if you promise not to do something so reckless again." She knew it wasn't that simple, she couldn't just switch her anger off like that, but she really had missed her happy-go-lucky kid. Mary half smiled at that. Maybe 5:30 in the morning wasn't so bad.

"Promise." This place really wasn't so bad - she already had more friends than her old school - and if trying to escape meant Bobbi was mad at her maybe she could stay.

"Good." Bobbi smiled, "now get dressed."


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just want to say sorry for the 2 MONTH wait.
> 
> This chapter started off in one direction, turned into another, and ended up somewhere completely different.
> 
> I promise it won't be a two month wait until the next chapter!

"Where are we going?" Bobbi looked over to Mary, she was dressed with her shirt inside out, her hair pulled into a ponytail without being brushed, and her left shoe was untied.

"It's a surprise." She smirked, earning a groan. "Agent May leads a Tai Chi class every morning and-"

"You said it would be fun." Mary cut in accusingly. "Tai Chi isn't fun. Agent May isn't fun... Sleeping is fun."

"Have you ever done Tai Chi?"

"No." The word was immediately followed by a yawn.

"Then how do you know you don't like it?" Bobbi pointed out, slowing her gait so the kid could catch up. "Come on, Minature, it makes you feel all zen and stuff, if you don't want to after a week you can stay and sleep." Mary stopped walking and was now standing in the middle of the hallway with her arms crossed awkwardly around her cast. "What now?"

"A week? You expect me to wake up in the middle of the night all week?"

"It's not the middle of the night." The blonde scoffed, urging the girl forward again. "The sun is up. Now hustle up, May doesn't like people being late."

"May doesn't like anything." Thought she did start walking again.

Tai Chi with May was only a dozen or so older students in complete silence on the grass near her classroom. Bobbi had started attending when her senior mentor had insisted on it; soomething about May being one of the best Agents and being able to learn a lot from her. Hopefully Mary would learn something from her too.

"You didn't say we were going outside!" Mary stopped again when Bobbi reached for the door handle. "It's cold out there."

"Then maybe you'll listen when I tell you to bring a jacket next time." Bobbi just shoved the door open, letting the cold air hit them both head on, pointedly ignoring the whining and shivering from her companion. On the small grassy area May was ignoring all her students and setting up her zen music as the dozen kids trickled over sleepily.

"You brought the kid." Izzy was one of the students, rubbing sleep from her eyes and stretching when Bobbi practically dragged Mary over.

"Who knows, maybe she'll be too tired from waking up early to get into trouble." Bobbi shrugged.

"She bribed me out of bed with candy and lies." Mary huffed, plonking herself petulantly on the wet, frosty ground under a tree.

"And if you want your candy you'll quit complaining." All at once the soft, tranquil music started and everyone went quiet. May was standing at the front of the group, silently moving her body through the art of Tai Chi as the student slowly followed her. Rumor had it that May never actually started the class, she was doing her morning routine and kids started showing up one day, but no-one really got up the courage to actually question the Agent so no-one actually knew what the truth was.

Bobbi let her breathing even out and her mind to go blank as she moved with her History teacher. Mary was still sitting on the ground under the tree - though she was thankfully silent - and watched in fascination as the most feared teacher did some weird slow dance to weird music at way too early in the morning. It was like watching a movie, Mary mused, with the way May stood at the front and Bobbi and the other kids followed her movements in near syncronisation.

The silence and tranquility gave Mary the same sense of peace as being in the Church at Saint Agnes' alone. That only happened really late when everyone was sleeping and she used to sneak out of her shared room. She'd sneak into the Church and sit in one of the back pews and watch the pretty colors of the moonlight streaming through the stained glass windows. Sister Mary Charlotte would usually find her eventually and take her back to her room, scolding her the entire way. But, she never got in trouble for it with the other nuns.

Did Sister Mary Charlotte even know that she was missing? Or did S.H.I.E.L.D lie and say she was still with the Freedmans? 'Cause that was, like, a sin to lie to a nun, wasn't it? Or did she know that they'd taken her and she just wasn't looking? Mary thought that that would probably be worse; if Sister Mary Charlotte knew she was gone, but wasn't looking for her. Because then it would mean that yet another person didn't want her.

"Kid!" Mary jumped when Bobbi's face was right in front of hers. "Deep thoughts, Kid?"

"Sleeping with my eyes open." Mary frowned back, blinking a bit to refocus and look around. May was gone, most of the kids were leaving and Bobbi was kneeling in front her.

"Sure." Bobbi snorted, standing up and holding out a hand to help her up. Mary looked at it for a second. Bobbi had promised - promised - that she would never be sent back to the orphanage.

"Candy now?" Mary took her hand and let the teenager yank her up to her feet, shaking her thoughts away.

"Not till after breakfast." Bobbi shook her head., warpping an arm around her shoulders as they walked back inside.

_********* _

**Week 5**

"You're English, right? From England?" Mary watched Simmons in the lab one day after classes. It was Wednesday, on Wednesdays Bobbi and Izzy had an extra class so Mary and Simmons would do their homework together... Well, Simmons would do her homework and Mary would watch and talk and try to avoid doing her homework.

"Yes, the English are generally from England." Simmons hummed absently, checking her papers three times before adding something to a beaker.

"So that's really far away, right?" Mary blinked as the liquid in the beaker turned from purple to green. Was that normal?

"Three thousand, six hundred and sixty-two miles." Simmons answered automatically. Seriously? Who knows that exact distance like that?

"Right... Anyway... So why did you want to come here?" Surely there was somewhere closer to England that would want a genius kid like Simmons?

"What do you mean?" The blond paused in her work to cock her head to the side curiously.

"Well, wouldn't there be somewhere closer to home that would let you do science and stuff?" She pointedly ignored Simmons' disbelieving noises at the way her work was described. "So why would you come so far away?"

"SHIELD provided the best program for advancement in my chosen field." Simmons explained, removing her protective goggles and sitting down. "Plus my parents thought that despite the distance it would be better for me in the long run to be around students of a similar intelect and age group... Though I must admit very few people here are actually a challenge to my intelligence."

"But, what if you didn't want to come? What would SHIELD have done?" Would they have kidnapped Simmons like they did her?

"Agent Weaver assured me that any choice I made would be respected and accepted." With that Simmons turned back to her beaker and started examining it, writing down notes on the green liquid.

"Must be nice." Mary mumbled under her breath, frowning after her friend.

"What was that?"

"Nothing." Simmons was way too happy to be here anyway, it's not like she'd understand her dislike of SHIELD for kidnapping her.

"Okay, Simmons, time to stop studying." Izzy announced as her and Bobbi came into the lab.

"And time for you to start, Miniature." Bobbi looked over her shoulder at her Math worksheet that she hadn't even started yet.

"But-" Both the younger started to protest.

"Wanna swap?" Izzy asked Bobbi as Simmons reluctantly started to pack up.

"You wouldn't last one week with the kid." The blonde scoffed, also loking at her untouched History paper and unopened reading assignment. It wasn't her fault she wasn't a weirdo who lived for homework!

"Hey! I'm an Angel!" Mary insisted, hopping off her chair after watching Bobbi pack up all her things.

"You're something alright." Bobbi urged her out the door after Izzy and Simmons. "Now. Who wants to learn how to disarm someone?"

"I believe there are other methods of survival than-" Simmons started, frowning back her.

"Simmons failed the physical placement exam." Izzy laughed, cutting the English girl off. Mary glanced at Simmons at that, if there was one thing she knew about her it was that Simmons hated failing anything. "She's got strict non-field-duty orders."

"I didn't fail." Simmons huffed, "I simply don't see the need for field training when I am going to be in the labs. Away from danger."

"You wanna learn, Kid?" Bobbi asked Mary as Izzy and Simmons continued to argue over whether or not she failed and if she would ever need it.

"No homework?" Mary brightened, sure Simmons was smart, but school just wasn't her thing.

Bobbi rolled her eyes, but conceded; "no homework. But, you have to take it seriously, I'm not teaching you if you're just going to waste my time."

"I'll be good." Big brown eyes blinked up at her. Mary had been a lot better in the last two weeks; attending all her classes, coming to Tai Chi in the mornings - though she only ever climbed the tree or watched - not blocking out the internet when she was trying to use it.

"Good." Izzy and Simmons veered off to the dorms, still arguing, whilst Bobbi led Mary towards to gyms."Who knows, you might learn enough to take one of the basic self defence classes next semester."

"The one where I get graded to beat up boys?"

"And you better get nothing less than an A or I'm trading you in." Although at this point there was no-one trade her in for. That usually happened at Orientation and Mary had come in three weeks later and been assigned to her by the Deputy Director. There was no way she could swap her out for another first year. Besides, Bobbi shook her head, her life wouldn't be nearly as interesting with another kid wreaking havoc all the time.

_********* _

"She's a fast learner." Bobbi reported, she'd taken her weekly reports to Agent Hill from her dorm room into an empty classroom not far away. Less chance of waking the kid or being overheard. "I wanted to get her and Simmons some basic defence before our mission and she's been picking it up pretty quick."

"I'll review her methods and think about next semester." Hill made a note. "Anything else?"

"She's taken to climbing the tree instead of doing Tai Chi every morning, I'm pretty sure it either annoys or amuses May."

"If it annoyed her, you'd know." Hill dismissed with a wave of her hand. “Next?”

“Sister Mary Charlotte. All the other nuns, carers and staff at Saint Agnes’ have been moved around at least once a year for the last ten years. Except for Sister Mary Charlotte.” It had taken two weeks to realise why the same name never appeared twice on any of Mary’s reports. Because none of them were long enough to report twice. Which led to the question of how there was an Agent watching the girl and keeping protocol, which led to Sister Mary Charlotte. The name had sparked something in her memory from Mary’s first days at SCHOLAR; Mary Charlotte was the only one to always remember her kid and make sure she was never left behind.

Bobbi opened a file on her computer; Mary’s file. She’d been less than a year old when she turned up in the system and had been taken in by a family nearly immediately. A young couple who had ended up being arrested for smuggling drugs and little Mary Poots was returned to the state. Her next family had been declared unfit parents. The third was a woman who had been given a work promotion and moved to France and been unable to take Mary out of the country. The fourth was the Coopers - Bobbi hated the Coopers.  
“She’s the one that chose the families, right? The one who decided where Mary went?” The one who picked all the worst families to make sure that Mary would end up back at Saint Agnes’ before anyone could pinpoint her, and when it was a good home SHIELD made something happen so she would have to return to the state.

“Don’t make it personal, Morse.” Hill pursed her lips, anyone would be able to see that she was attached to the girl.

“She’s a kid!” Bobbi burst, how could she just sit by and be okay with Mary being forced around the country. Mary was her kid, damnit, and SHIELD had been making her life Hell for her entire life.

“And that’s unfortunate, but this is above your clearance, Morse.” Agent Hill said pointedly, “understood?”

“Yes, Ma’am.” The blonde ground the words out. gritting her teeth.  
Hill was the one who made her responsible for Mary, she was the one who gave her the lead to look for Agent 42, she was the one who made her care about the kid; and now that she was upset that Bobbi was pissed about SHIELD passing Mary through the worst homes for whatever reason.

“Good.” Hill nodded, casting her eyes down to her notes for a moment. “If that’s all, Morse...”

Bobbi sighed and nodded, “Ma’am.” She spoke up just before Hill could cut the connection. “You said Mary was my responsibility, that makes it personal.”


	13. Chapter 13

**Week 6**

Mary watched Bobbi and Izzy from the top of the tree next to where they usually did Tai Chi with Agent May. Except Bobbi and Izzy were standing and talking to each other while looking around, and the others that do Tai Chi were doing the same, the reason for which was that Agent May wasn't there. They'd all turned up on time and were at the right place, but Agent May wasn't.  
Maybe she finally realised sleep was the better option, Mary mused, laying across one of the branches and peaking down. Bobbi looked confused, but then she checked her watch and shrugged and looked around one more time.

“Maybe we should just start anyway?” Bobbi suggested loud enough that Mary could hear from her spot in the tree.

It took longer than when May was there - which was about three seconds, Mary timed once - but eventually all the students moved into their usual formation, leaving an empty space at the front where May was meant to be with her music. It was usually fun to watch, but this was just sad, like a poor immitation.

“Where’s May gone?” Mary called down when the class eventually stopped and everyone dispersed much quicker than normal.

“Don’t know.” Mary sat up on her branch and was about to jump down - even though Bobbi told her not to every day because it was dangerous. “Stay there.” It only took a minute for Bobbi scale the tree and sit on the branch next to her.

“Does this mean we get to sleep in like normal people?” She couldn’t keep the hope out of her voice. Really, the later in the month it got the colder and darker it was when they woke up.

“Nah.” Bobbi smirked, “too much fun torturing you.”

“Thought so, my sleep deprivation really amuses you, doesn’t it?” Mary narrowed her eyes accusingly. “You should probably talk to someone about your apparent need to torture innocent little kids.”

“You’re about as innocent as the Devil.” The blonde snorted, “What’s your fascination with this tree anyway?”

Mary grinned, swinging her legs over the branch and laying on her stomach like she had been before, Bobbi let out a yelp and she felt hands on her legs, gripping her tightly. “It feels like flying.” She held her arms out and giggled when a gust of wind blew her hair back.

“It looks like a death wish.” Bobbi shook her head. “Just make sure you don’t die; I’d hate to have to explain that to Agent Hill.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Mary waved her off and settled onto the branch as the wind rustled again. “Flying would be so cool.”

“Flying would be a nightmare on your hair.” Bobbi jumped down from the tree, landing in a crouch just like her teachers had told her to. “Come on, time to feed you before sending you torture the teachers.” She barely had time to react before a ball of dark hair and evil-ness was leaping to the ground with a shout of laughter.

“Have you every flown before?” The little girl questioned, nearly skipping along next to her. “I nearly got to fly once, with the Brody’s-” a nice young family that had been possibly the best one Mary had stayed with. “-but then they sent me back when I called Mrs. Brody ‘Mom’.” Bobbi had seen a note on Mary’s file about the Brody’s, they’d wanted to adopt her when she was 9.

“I had to fly to get here.” Bobbi answered the question instead of dwelling on her misgivings as a ward of the State. “I grew up in Georgia so I have to fly here every semester.”

“Cool.” There was that look again, the one that made it feel like being ‘cool’ to an 11-year-old was one of her best achievemnts. “What’s it look like from on top of the clouds?”

Bobbi smiled, “like the sky is the limit. But it’s not just about flying, it’s for you too, Mary, if there’s something you want to do don’t stop until you reach the sky.”

* * *

 

“Where’s Agent May?” Mary frowned when she made it to History class and there was an Agent she didn’t recognise at the desk.

“Agent May has been reassigned.” The man monotoned, not looking up from some papers on the desk.

“When will she be back?” The man finally looked up to shoot her a glare.

“Reassigned. As in not coming back.” She stared at the man who stared back at her. Eventually she had to look away and go to her seat.

Why would Agent May leave? Agent May never left, that’s what everyone always said; not for vacation, not for Christmas, not for anything. So why now? The only thing that had changed between never leaving and sudenly being gone was Mary being at the school.

May had left because of her. May had left her. Mary knew that feeling of rejection, of being told she wasn’t good enough or not a good fit. May didn’t even like her, and she didn’t like May much either, but the feeling of rejection was still there. May had left her... What if Bobbi left her too?

Mary was dimly aware of the new Agent telling her to sit back; she got out of her seat not even five minutes after she sat down and started to leave. She could feel her uneven breathing and her racing heart as she stumbled down the hall. Bobbi. Bobbi couldn’t leave her too. It was only six weeks, she knew better than to trust someone so soon, but she couldn’t help it and now May had left her and Bobbi might leave too.

“Hey!” Someone was shouting at her, but she ignored it. Bobbi promised she would never have to go back to Saint Agnes’, but that didn’t mean that she wouldn’t leave. “Poots.” Mary struggled out of the hands gripping her forearms.

She and Agent May didn’t even like each other that much, so why was the rejection so strong? The hands gripped her tighter, but that only made her struggle more; Bobbi. She needed Bobbi, didn’t this person understand that? Someone was yelling, people were whispering, she couldn’t breathe. someone was calling her name.

Bobbi was calling her name; Mary swiped out at the person holding her, nails scratching into flesh at the same time as her head jerked back and connected with something solid. Her head hurt and her already blurry vision started to fade as she a mass of blonde hair coming closer...

* * *

“I don’t care what sort of pet project you think she is, she attacked a superior.” Bobbi felt like she was going to throw up. Everything had been going wrong since she’d sent Mary off to her first class. Agent May had apparently been reassigned, Mary had run out of class and straight into Agent Hand, then she started screaming for Bobbi and then atacked Agent hand leaving a trio of angry red scratch marks on her cheek.

“From witness accounts, Victoria, the girl was not in her right mind.” Agent Hill had her arms crossed and was standing closeest to the door after having just arrived. Hill was by the door, Hand was at the end of the bed, Bobbi was sitting beside the bed and Mary was unconscious on the bed in the medical wing.

“Is that supposed to help her case? She tried to expose the school to the world as kidnappers, and now she attacked a teacher, she should have been expelled after the first incident.” Hand snapped, Bobbi just stared at Mary, why would she attack a teacher?

“Morse.” The blonde jumped when Hill called her name. “You know the kid best; what’s going on?” What was going on? Mary had been fine earlier in the morning... Then again, she’d been fine the morning she hacked the missing children’s message board and said she’d been kidnapped. “Morse?”

“I don’t know.” She huffed a breath out through her nose, still staring at Mary. The doctor in the medical wing was worried that she might have a concussion; she’d hit her head back with enough force that she might be concussed, but they had to wait for her to wake up. “She was fine this morning. Happy.”

“Happy kids don’t attack our Agents.” Hill pursed her lips, “Morse, back to class. I’ll deal with this.”

“But-” the blonde turned wide blue eyes on her, but Hill could deal with a lot worse than a 17-year-old with puppy eyes.

“Class. Morse.” She annunciated very clearly, even opening the door for her and stepping aside. Once she had left under the glare of Agent Hil, Maria sighed and shook her head. “I’m the Deputy Director of a global defence organisation, I have better things to do than deal with this shit.”

“There’s an easy solution to that, Maria.” Hand commented, still standing at the end of the bed; when she was unconscious the girl looked almost innocent. Looks could be very decieving.

“The kid stays, Victoria.” Maria crossed her arms, “that’s above even me.”

“What, is she Fury’s illegitimate love child? That why he wants her around?”

Maria snorted at the image and shook her head. “Oh-eight-four.”

“What?” Victoria frowned, tucking her lock of red hair back.

“The kid; she’s an oh-eight-four. She stays.” The two sat in silence, staring at the girl. Small for her age, her brow furrowed even in unconsciousness, and she seemingly had Morse wrapped around her finger. “The last one turned out to pretty important and very powerful so we’re keeping an eye on this one.” Thor’s Hammer.

“Powers?”

“Unknown.” Well, Victoria sat down with a sigh, she still didn’t like the brat.

“She has to be punished, clearly the last warning didn’t sink in.” She’d never admit that scratch had hurt, but the fact that it had drawn blood meant that it wasn’t exactly weak.

“I’ll get her side first, Vic, then decide on a punishment.” As if on cue Mary’s head tossed from one side to the other and she let out a low keening. “We both know you and the kid don’t get along...”

“I’m gone.” Victoria held up her hands in surrender as she left.

Maria sat next to the girl in the bed and waited as Mary slowly woke up, groaning and whining the whole time. No wonder Morse said she wasn’t a morning person if this happened every time she woke up. Eventually a pair of brown eyes blinked open and squinted against the dimmed lighting in the room.

“B... Bob... B... Bobbi?” Mary mumbled, her hand automatically reaching for her head. “Bobbi. Where’s Bobbi?”

“In class.” Mary’s eyes darted to Maria. “Morse is in class.” That didn’t seem to be the right thing to say since Mary sat upright - and let out a pained yelp when she did - and started looking around frantically. “Woah, Miniature, calm down.”

“What?” That seemed to confuse Mary for a moment, she went quiet and frowned at her. “Huh?”

“Calm down, Kid, panicking isn’t going to help anything.” The girl sat back and blinked a couple of times.

“My head hurts.” Hill rolled her eyes, but left to go talk to one of the doctors about some painkillers.

“Now talk.” Agent Hill commanded when she got back to the room.

“Huh?”

“What made you freak out and attack Agent Hand? She’s not happy about that.” Maria clarified, watching the girl carefully. “You need to give me your side or I listen to Hand and punish you accordingly.”

“Where’s Agent May?” Mary frowned, the silver bracelet on her wrist was still punishing her from last time she was in trouble.

“Agent May was reassigned.” What did May have to do with anything?

“But, why? Why did she leave?” The ‘me’ on the end was silent, but Mary felt that maybe Hill had heard it anyway.

“The why doesn’t matter; why you scratched Agent Hand is the issue.” They were both silent, staring at each other; Mary wanted to know why May left her, Hill wanted her answers.

“I didn’t know it was her.” Mary finally burst, “I was trying to find Bobbi and then someone was stopping me so I tried to get away.”

“Why did you want Morse?”

“Because what if she left too? I’m not a good fit, but I wanted this time to be different, but May left so Bobbi might leave too.” Her fears spilled out like water and it made her feel sick. What if it happened now because she said it? She heard Hill sigh, but refused to look up from her fingers twisting in her lap.

“Poots.” She didn’t look up, “Mary.” This time she did because even she knew better than to ignore Agent Hill. “Bobbi isn’t leaving you. At this point I think she’d leave the school and take you with her, but she’s not leaving you.”

“But-”

“I can’t stop it from hurting, but May leaving had nothing to with you; she was needed elsewhere. You are staying here, and so is Bobbi.” Hill spoke firmly, though she wasn’t sure she quite managed the comforting part. “I’ll talk to Hand about your punishment. Someone will be in to check your head.”

“‘Kay.” Mary watched as Agent Hill got up and started for the door.

“I’m sure Morse will be here as soon as classes finish.” Were Hill’s parting words before Mary was left alone in the hospital room. Agent Hill hadn’t been overly comforting, but at least now she knew that May hadn’t abandoned her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The only timeline I've managed to find for the MCU that actually has dates and (sometimes) times and pictures to back up a lot of those dates says that the team was assembled on September 9th, 2013, and then HYDRA was revealed little more than a month later on October 14th, 2013... That seams like an awful lot happened with the team in that month then...  
> If anyone else knows where I can get a better timeline with dates and such, that would be awesome, until then I'm going by; http://www.tiki-toki.com/timeline/entry/5395/A-Marvel-Cinematic-Universe-Timeline/ it hasn't been updated since Iron Man 3 came out, but it's the best one I've found to date.
> 
> Also; I just heard (like, a month or so late) that Skye is going to go by Daisy now in AoS. I haven't reached the part where she chooses Skye yet (it's coming soon) and they're already changing it to Daisy?
> 
> And thank-you to the numerous people who have chimed in on Bobbi/Skye names; so far my favourite is Morse Code (on a side note never try to learn Binary, Morse and Russian at the same time).
> 
> P.S: You can tell I'm great with chapter names, huh?


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Enjoy some pics I found of Adrianne Palicki and Chloe Bennet :D

                    

**Week 7**

Bobbi watched as Mary bounced around the halls. Like, literally bounced. Today was the day that she was finally getting her cast off and Bobbi didn’t think she’d seen the kid so happy in the entire 7 weeks she’d been at S.C.H.O.L.A.R.

“Hurry up, Bobbi!” Mary urged over her shoulder, already rounder the next corner by the time Bobbi reached the previous one.

“Excitable thing.” Izzy laughed next to her. Mary had to go because it was her arm the cast was coming off; Bobbi had to go to sign off on it since she was the Senior Mentor, Simmons was coming out of curiosity for the whole procedure, and Izzy had just decided to tag along after that.

“Tell me about it.” Bobbi rolled her eyes. “Would you believe _she_ woke **me** up this morning?”

“This is so exciting; I’ve only ever seen the procedure in videos, it’ll be a nice perspective to see it in person.” Simmons was almost as excited as Mary.

“It’s not a dissection, Simmons, not that entertaining.” The two older girls shook theirs heads.

“FINALLY!” Mary was waiting at the entrance to the medical wing, impatiently tapping her foot. “What, did you take a nap?”

“If only you were this excited about training or school work.” Bobbi glanced over the form the doctor handed her before signing it.

“My hand has been itchy for nearly two months.” The young brunette exclaimed, hopping up on the examination table as the doctor laughed.

“Okay, Miss Poots, your x-rays came up clear so we can go right ahead and take this off.” The Doctor said, lighting up a board and pointing what must have been her bones, but Mary didn’t care about the x-rays. She hadn’t been able to fully move her fingers since she got to this school.

“It’s really fascinating; the saw uses a vibrating movement rather than a spinning action so it can cut through the colid material of the plaster, but it doesn’t harm the person should it accidentally make contact.” Simmons was nearly vibrating herself as the doctor got the saw ready, even holding it to first his hand and then Mary’s to prove that it wouldn’t hurt.

“Soon?” Mary frowned, wiggling her fingers until she was told to keep them still.

“Nearly done.” The Doctor assured. Mary huffed every minute that went by, Simmons chattered on about healing bones, Izzy checked her S.O.C.I.A.L page on her phone.

“How did you get a piece of bacon stuck in there?” Bobbi blurted out when the cast finally broke apart and amongst other things a strip of bacon, some Lucky Charms, a paper clip and some scraps of paper fell out.

“I dunno.” Mary shrugged, holding her hand out in front of her and wiggling her fingers.

“It may still ache, and I want you to go easy on it for a while...” Mary tuned the Doctor out as he kept talking about things she should and shouldn’t do. If it was important Bobbi would tell her. Her hand was finally free, she’d never realized how much she used her hand until she hadn’t been able to use it completely. Plus, if she ever got the stupid nanny bracelet off her CS teacher would be happy; she’d been impressed with what she could do with one hand in a cast, imagine what she could do with two complete hands!

“Wait! I want those.” Mary came back to attention to see the Doctor ready to throw out her scraps of paper.

“So,” Izzy started when they managed to get away from the medical wing half an hour later. “What are you going to do with two full hands?”

“Oh no, no strenuous activity for at least a month.” Simmons stated matter-of-factly.

“I wanna punch something.” Big brown eyes turned up to Bobbi; “you said I could punch stuff when I got my cast off, right?” That had been one of the selling points in getting her to train every other day.

“Sure, Kid.” Bobbi agreed, which caused Simmons to launch into another lecture on strenuous activity.

“Where’s Fitz and Ward?” Simmons looked around the cafeteria when they sat down for breakfast. Fitz would happily sleep in until noon and then eat his weight in food, but Ward always made sure he was up in the morning and reminded him to chew between bites.

“Mission.” Trip answered, “Ward got his mission orders last night, they were gone this morning.”

“Oh.” Bobbi let out a breath; Ward was the first one to get his mission orders. A two man mission about some device, if she remembered correctly. The missions were starting, how long would it be until she got the orders for her team?

“When are they gonna be back?” Simmons actually looked a little lost, as if Fitz would walk in at any minute.

“When they finish.” Trip shrugged, turning back to his breakfast.

“Wait!” Mary piped up, wide eyed. “We get to skip school for these things?”

“It’s not skipping school, it’s participating in a school activity.” Bobbi rolled her eyes, “and stay away from the bacon.”

* * *

 

**Week 8**

“Step one;” Bobbi grabbed a roll of tape and sat on a bench with one leg over each side. “When you’re going for a punching bag you always have to tape or wrap hands.”

“Why?” Mary kept glancing over to the big bag that Bobbi was finally going to let her hit. She’d had her cast off for a whole week before the teenager had said her wrist was ready for punching.

“To protect your hand; keeps your wrist straight so it doesnt twist on impact, protects your knuckles from getting cut...” Bobbi pursed her lips slightly as she concentrated, slowly and carefully wrapping the tape around Mary’s little hands, explaining every step as she worked. “How does that feel?”

“I dunno, fine I guess.” Mary shrugged, flexing her fingers in the tape.

“Most professionals use tape, but I’ll see about getting you a glove or something since your hands are so teeny tiny.” Bobbi smirked at the look of outrage on Mary’s face.

“No they’re not.” She yanked her hands back and glared. Her hands were not teeny tiny.

“They’re itty bitty, teeny tiny, baby hands.” The blonde laughed, capturing one of her hands and measuring it against her own. “See.”

“Maybe you just have giant hands.” Mary shot back defensively.

“Nope; you’re itty bitty.”

“I hate you.” Mary grumbled darkly.

“Love you too, Kiddo.” Bobbi smiled, getting up after wrapping her own hands. “You remember what I told you about your fists?” She questioned as Mary trailed after her like a puppy to the punching bag.

“Don’t make a full fist until I’m about to connect?” The girl clenched and unclenched her fists a couple of times. “And always keep my thumb out.”

“Good.” The blonde walked to the other side of the bag, leaning against it slightly and holding it steady. “Now don’t put all your strength into it yet and show me.” She kept her eye on Mary as she approached the bag and took her first swing, not even feeling it through the bag before she let go and went back around. “Good first try.” She assured, earning a bright smile. “But, let’s see your hand; loose fist going in for more speed, then clench when you’re about to hit.”

“Loose then clench.” Mary nodded, her brow furrowed in concentration as she repeated the movement when Bobbi demonstrated.

“Good. Again.” Bobbi grinned as Mary started hitting the bag, carefully correcting her stance, hand positiong and fists until she managed to throw a perfect punch. “I’m proud of you, Mary.”

“Really?” The girl in question was laying on the mats on the floor, claiming exhaustion after her half hour lesson. If that was the case it was going to be a lot of work to get her through the basic defence class next semester.

“Really.” Bobbi laid down with her head next to Mary’s, but the rest of her body in the opposite direction. They stayed there for a while until Bobbi started to think that Mary had fallen asleep.

“Did you mean it before?” Mary’s voice was barely a whisper, but it still made Bobbi startle a little.

“Mean what?” Bobbi turned head to see her staring back with wide brown eyes.

“You said you love me.” The fear and uncertainty was clear on her face and in her voice. Bobbi’s breath caught in her throat.

“Yeah.” The blonde murmured, she’d known the kid for two months and already knew that she’d never give her up for anything. She was infuriating, annoying, talked back and a nightmare in the morning, but she was hers. “Yeah, I do love you.”

“I think I love you too.” And Mary had a feeling that maybe Bobbi understood that it was hard for her to say because every time she’d said it before she’d been sent back to the orphanage.

* * *

 

“Bobbi?” Mary was swinging her legs as she sat on the branch of her tree - it was her tree, damnit!.

“Yeah?” The blonde hummed, standing on the ground and absently tying the younger girls shoes that were hanging in front of her face as the Tai Chi dispersed. Not many came anymore, but the ones that did knew the routine well enough to get along without Agent May.

“You know how you said you’d call me a different name if I found one I liked?” It had been her mission in life to find something better than Mary Sue Poots (not that hard) since.

“Yeah.” It was a novelty that Bobbi was the one who had to look up at someone.

“I think I found one I like.” Mary nudged Bobbi back with her foot before jumping down from the tree.

“Hit me.” Bobbi urged, rolling her eyes when Mary shrugged and lightly his her arm.

“It’s what you said about the sky’s the limit.” Mary suddenly found herself greatly interested in the grass. “I kinda like Skye because then I’m the limit, I’m the only thing holding me back.”

“Skye.” Bobbi tested it out on her tongue. “You sure you can answer to it?”

“Yeah.” The girl nodded and Bobbi stopped them from walking back to the school.

“You sure you’re sure?” She paused and bit her lip before nodding.

“I’m sure.” Bobbi stared at her for a long time before kneeling down and holding out her hand.

“Nice to meet you, I’m Bobbi.” The brunette looked from the blonde’s hand to her face before accepting the handshake.

“Hi, my name is Skye.”


	15. Skye's The Limit

"Palamas got her mission briefing this morning." Izzy announced when Bobbi and the newly named Skye made it to their table. "Apparently she's pissed she worked her ass off and got Holmes' extraction from an info op." Bobbi tried to not to feel guilty about that, she was the one that switched the missions.

"Guys." Bobbi kept an arm around Skye's shoulders as everyone turned to stare, jeez, since when could she command such attention? "I would like you all to say goodbye to Mary Sue Poots." Possibly the worst name in the history of names; and her name was Barbara! She could see the confusion on their friends faces; was she going somewhere, had she finally pissed Hand off enough that even Hill couldn't stop her from getting expelled? "And hello to  _Skye_."

"Skye?" Simmons frowned, "but, you can't just decide to change your name; there's all sorts of forms and legalities. Not to mention the fact that you're a minor so you'd need a parent to agree to it, but since you're a ward of the-"

"Simmons!" With every word the British girl spoke Bobbi could feel Skye tensing next to her. "Just go with it."

"I like it." Trip nodded, testing the name on his tongue silently. "Good fit, Girl." At those words - Good Fit - Skye snapped her head in his direction to see him grinning at her. "Skye."

Sometimes Bobbi was bewildered by their group of friends; her and Izzy had become fast friends when they'd both arrived in the same year, they somehow managed to pick up Ward last year when he was wandering around like a lost puppy. And they'd all naturally brought their first year students in this year. But, Trip had been at the school since last year and had just come over and sat at their table one day in the middle of the year for lunch and he'd been with them ever since even though he was two years younger than the Seniors, and now two years older than Fitz and Simmons, and 4 years older than Skye.

"Perfect fit." Bobbi murmured in Skye's ear as she sat down.

"Cuddly." Izzy observed when Skye sat as close to Bobbi as she could and the blonde teenager put her arm around her shoulders.

"Cuddle your own kid." Bobbi stuck her tongue out at her best friend.

"Girls are weird." Fitz whispered to Ward. "So why Skye?"

"I liked it." Skye shrugged, picking at her breakfast - she still wasn't allowed bacon after they found some in her cast. "It felt right."

* * *

"Why has Agent Hand recieved no less than seven complaints about your kid in two days?" Was Agent Hills greeting when Bobbi connected for her weekly report about Mary. "Refusing to answer when called on, talking back to Agents who talk to her..." She raised an eyebrow at the teenager.

"The nuns named her Mary Sue Poots." Bobbi still wrinkled her nose at the name.

"And?"

"She wants to be Skye now and she gets upset when some people refuse to acknowledge that." She'd spoken to some of the Agents personally, but they still called her Mary Poots. "They call her Mary, she ignores them."

"And you encourage this?" Hill pursed her lips.

"There were people who insisted on calling me Barbara." Bobbi shrugged earning a sigh.

"I should have given the kid to Palamas." The Agent grumbled under her breath. "At least she doesn't have a name crisis to fuel the kid on."

The report was a quick one; other than any major events with Skye - which there hadn't been a need to inform Hill of any of their personal moments - the reports were mainly about school work, which Skye hardly paid attention to, but seemingly did enough to not ger reprimanded for it.  
Then she'd recieved an email from Agent Hand informing her that she ahd to report to her office at first light for mission debriefing. After that she'd gone back to her room where Skye wasn't as asleep as she'd been when she'd left.

"Where were you?" Were the first words out of Skye's mouth.

"Talking to Agent Hill." Skye laid back down in her bed when Bobbi came close. "Why are you up?" Skye shrugged and let out a yawn."Go back to sleep, Miniature."

"Agent Hill called me that once." Skye yawned again, blinking up when Bobbi sat next to her on her bed. "It was when Agent May left, she called me that and it reminded me of you."

"I picked it up from her." Bobbi half smiled at the memory, "when Hill came to recruit me to SCHOLAR she called me Miniature because I didn't like Barbara."

"That's an old person name." The little brunette giggled, making Bobbi flick her lightly on the forehead. "You're not an old person so I'm happy you changed it." Another yawn as she blinked her eyes, trying to stay awake.

"Get some sleep, Kid." Bobbi stood up and stretched. First light wasn't that far away and she hoped to God that the mock-op didn't start then because it was going to be a nightmare getting Skye ready for that.

* * *

"Ward, get lost." Were Bobbi's opening words as she slid into her seat at breakfast, clutching her mission file tightly. "Sorry, Fitz, you too. We've got our mock-op." Both boys grumbled, but after Bobbi just stared at them expectantly until they left. "Where's Skye?"

"Wasn't in your room, figured you took her with you." Izzy shrugged, "what are we doing? Please tell me it's better than Kara's extraction."

"Infiltrate, eliminate, and rescue." The mission she'd chosen herself, not that anybody but her knew that. She spread the file out on the table; pictures of buildings, blurry pictures that were meant to be the bad guys, information, locations... It was everything she'd imagined an actual mission would be like. "Hand said we run our own back end and we take whatever fits in the car." She dropped the keys to one of S.H.I.E.L.D's shiny black SUV's on the table with a grin. "We're going to have a base of operations and everything."

"I've got to get my microscope!" Simmons announced, jumping up in a movement that seemed to push the rest of them into action; Bobbi raced off back to her room as the others split off to their own rooms and departments for equipment.

"Skye-" Bobbi had half expected the girl to be there despite what Izzy had said, but the words died on her lips when she entered the dorm room; her side of the room was exactly as she'd left it, right down to her pajamas that were thrown half on the bed, half on the floor. Skye's side however was spotlessly clean with her bed perfectly made, her books neatly stacked and her school bag was gone. "The Hell?" Bobbi frowned, that side of the room hadn't been that clean since she had come back from Summer vacation. Skye certainly wasn't that neat, the kids system for sorting clothes was clean in one pile on the floor and dirty in another pile on the floor. "Skye?" Maybe it was just some sort of prank? But, no, in her gut Bobbi had a bad feeling about this.

Bobbi forced herself not to tear apart the other side of the room, looking for some hint of her kid; if there was a clue here she wouldn't find it by destroying everything. She had to stop and think. Stop and think. The mission file was sitting on her bed where she'd tossed it when she came and she got a sick feeling in her stomach. Infiltrate and enemy base, eliminate the enemies, rescue a hostage. Rescue a hostage when Skye hadn't been seen since she left at first light. She'd been gone for three hours before heading to breakfast, that was plenty of time for someone to come and take Skye and clean up any evidence.

"Izzy." She'd dialed the number before the thought even proccessed. "Bring Simmons, gloves, and evidence bags. Skye's gone." That was all she'd needed to say before Izzy hung up, already calling out to Simmons in the background. "Shit, Skye!" Bobbi swore, Skye would not be taking this well, after she'd been kidnapped once by S.H.I.E.L.D, and Bobbi had promised not to leave her they'd taken her again. And even if it was for a mock-op that didn't sit right with her.


	16. Mock Ops And Flightless Birds

"Nobody touch anything!" Simmons announced when she, Izzy and Trip got to Bobbi and Skye's room. "What have you touched, Bobbi?"

"Nothing." The older blonde held her hands up, finally managing to tear her eyes away from Skye's freakishly neat bed. "Just the door when I opened it."

"Oh, it's rather clean in here, that should make anything that stands out easier to find." Simmons brightened, but Bobbi was filled with dread.

"Simmons, the thing that stands out is that it's clean; Skye isn't neat. None of that is Skye." She shook her head, making the English girls face fall.

"Well, then, we have our work cut out for us; Izzy, if you could turn off the lights I'll start with a black light to identify and blood or bodily fluids."

"Blood." Bobbi gulped as the room went dark for a minute before it was lit up again in blue.

"It's highly unlikely that the Agents would have hurt her, but if Ma-Skye reacted badly to the idea of leaving she may have scratched the assailants." Simmons assured, scanning her light over the room in patches. "If, as part of our mock operation, we have access to the SHIELD database to cross-reference the DNA we could find the Agent responsible which could lead us in the right direction." She explained, making a humming sound as she stopped by Skye's bed and produced a cotton swab from seemingly nowhere.

"What if it is Skye's?" Bobbi could feel her nails digging into her palms as she watched Simmons sample the 'bodily fluid'.

"Then I am afraid it won't be much help." Simmons capped the swab before continuing.

"Hey, they left this." Trip spoke from Skye's desk, flipping through the book she used to draw in. "What's with the Binary?" Nearly every page had a childish drawing on it - Bobbi recognised the tree she climbed during Tai Chi - and scribbles of Binary code on the back.

"She likes it." The blonde took the book and flipped through. "There's a page missing." Half a page really, torn out quickly and roughly, scrunching the rest of the page in the process.

"Oh, look, more blood." Simmons darted over to the doorway and took another swab.

"Probably don't sound excited, Jem." Izzy hissed after noticing her best friends angered look. "Bob, look carefully, you know this. We learn this in class. What is out of place?"

"Everything!" The blonde burst, looking around, "no clothes on the floor, her bed is made, her books are neat, the trash in in the can. Skye didn't do this and she's a kid, damnit! Worse, she's a foster kid with trust issues who has been kidnapped for the second time by the same agency."

"Well, there's really no evidence so far that this was SHIELD." Everyone in the room froze and turned to stare at Simmons.

"Not helping, Simmons." Izzy turned to lights back on. "Now stop and think, Bobbi. What do we do next?" The bloonde took a deep breath and tried to focus.

"We need to run the blood. Go to the lab and run the blood; find whoever was involved and get the information out of them." Bobbi nodded decisively, trying to push down her rising panic. "To the labs!"

* * *

"We have a problem." Simmons announced when the small group reached the labs where she did her bio-chem classes.

"What now?" Bobbi was already heading for one of the computers.

"We don't have access to SHIELD's database; only Agents with clearance have access, and it's limited depending on their Level." Simmons explained, but Bobbi was already shaking her head.

"I'm Level One." She announced, pointedly ignoring the silence in favor of logging in and connecting the computer to the blood scanner. "Since the start of the year; Hill said I might need it and three weeks later Skye turned up." The two blonde teenagers worked in tandem to scan the blood, run it through the database, and come up with two responses; both of them working with practiced ease and efficiency. Simmons the young genius bio-chem, and Bobbi the advanced - though not to Simmons' level - student.

"Classified Level Ten." Trip raised his eyebrows. This was one hell of a mock-op if there was a Level 10 classification on something.

"It's Skye." Bobbi waved it off, already moving onto the next sample. "Kaminsky? The creepy guy that hangs around the girls' showers?" The sinking pit in her stomach got worse. Something was off with this whole thing, and it wasn't just because Skye was missing. "Go finish grabbing your things, I want this over by the end of the day." Simmons ran off, Trip gave a mock salute before he left, but Izzy stayed behind.

"Don't do anything stupid, Bob." The two girls stood in silence for a minute.

"Something doesn't feel right about this.' She finally admitted, leaning back against a table.

"I know."

"All the other missions the whole team was involved; Fitz and Ward both went, Kara and her team, Holmes and his team. Why would they it change now?"

"I know." Izzy nodded again, watching her friend closely.

"I need to call Hill." Bobbi decided, heading for the door.

"It makes a difference when you're responsible for her, huh?" Izzy mused, walking next to her.

"Go help Simmons, Iz." When she got back to her room it was exactly as they'd left it; too neat, too cold, and missing an unruly 11-year-old. Her phone was on her bed next to her mission file and she quickly dialled Agent Hill, waiting impatiently for it to connect. "Come on, come on." She mumbled, pacing around the room as the phone rang. And rang. And rang. And disconnected. "Answer." Bobbi huffed as if that would help, sitting on Skye's bed and looking around. Too neat. She wasn't even sure that the bed had made at all except for changing the sheets every week.

The call disconnected again, but Bobbi redialled and put the phone on speaker so she could listen to it ring while she inspected the room. The book had half a page torn out so she went straight to the trashcan, tipping everything ou and pawing through it; homework, candy wrappers, random paper, half a torn page.  
It wasn't anything special on the page, just the same ones and zeros of Binary code, but it was the last thing Skye had been doing before she had been taken. Bobbi had never understood her fascination with Binary code, but Skye had taken an affinity to it and seemed to cling to it like a lifeline.  
The phone rang out again so she redialled. Maybe it was selfish of her - clearly Agent Hill was doing something important - but she needed her answers.

"Morse, stop your mission and report to Agent Hand." Were the words she was greeted with when Agent Hill finally answered her phone, making Bobbi leap for the device and take it off speaker.

"Why Skye?" Bobbi demanded instead. "It could have been anything, it could have been a Twinkie, so why Skye?"

"What are you talking about?" The sinking pit in her stomach got deeper.

"The mission. You took Skye for the mission." Silence. Dead silence.

"Morse, that's not your mission." Agent Hill said slowly and if that didn't fill Bobbi with dread nothing would. "Your mission was to rescue a rubber ducky from a warehouse; I just had one of our best teams come back wanting to know why they rescued a bath toy."

"What?" Bobbi felt like the air had been taken out of her lungs, her vision went spotty for a minute before everything returned with crystal clarity.

"Your missions were mixed somehow, what you're preparing for is classified intel." Mixed missions. They weren't mixed, Bobbi had done that herself; she'd used Agent Hand's computer to put herself and her team on this mission, she'd thought it was a mock-op like the others.

"Then where's Skye?" She'd admit to her Royal screw up later, when Skye wasn't missing. "If my mission was a rubber ducky, then where the Hell is Skye."

"Maybe she's-"

"She was taken!" Bobbi burst, glaring at nothing, Hill wasn't there to see it so it was at nothing. "Her bed is made, Skye never makes her bed; someone took her and we've got traces of Kaminsky's blood in the room."

"Who the Hell is Kaminsky?" Hill sounded equal parts confused and exasperated. "I'll have a team find Skye, you report to Hand, and not a word to anyone."

"But-" Bobbi tried to speak.

"Don't argue, Morse, I have to clean this shit up and somehow explain to Fury how I lost a kid he put me in charge of." With that Agent Hill hung up and the teenager was left sitting on Skye's bed glaring at nothing.

Bobbi didn't go to Hand like she was told, she wasn't going to just sit around and wait for some team to bring Skye back. Instead she pocketed her phone and went to find Kaminsky; that guy always did creep her out, she'd always wanted to beat the crap out of him.

"Did you talk to Hill?" Izzy was waiting outside her room, leaning against the opposite wall with her arms crossed.

"Yeah." Bobbi started walking without waiting for her best friend, she'd follow her, she always did. Izzy was the one that usually stopped her from doing something stupid.

"And?"

"And I fucked up so I'm going to get Skye back even if I have to do it on my own and I get kicked out." The boys dorm was three halls away, but if he was smart Kaminsky would have left the state by now to avoid her wrath.

"And a sentence like that means I get an explanation." Izzy grabbed her arm and stopped her, giving her a stern look. "Start at the start."

"The night I went to give Hand our team for the mission she was in the bathroom so I did it myself, but we were attached to Kara's mission so I put her in for the extraction and found a better one for us. Something got mixed up and the mission Hand read me in on this morning was a real mission meant for real Agents, and those Agents went to rescue a rubber ducky so now Hill has to try and clean that mess up and Skye wasn't a part of it at all. So someone actually kidnapped Skye, when Hand and Hill find out I messed with the missions they're going to be pissed and Hill thinks I'm just going to sit by and wait for her to send some random team to get Skye." Bobbi explained it all as quickly as possible, barely stopping to breathe in between.

"Okay." Was all Izzy seemed able to say as she paused to process everything.

"I need to find Kaminsky." Bobbi started walking again, but barely got three steps before Izzy caught her again.

"You need to stop and take a breath-"

"Someone kidnapped Skye, Iz." The blonde nearly shouted, rounding on her friend. "Some asshole got their hands on Skye, and Hill wants me to sit and do nothing. I promised Skye I'd always find her and that's a promise I'm going to keep."

"So you're just going to leave?" Izzy demanded, nearly running to keep up with the blonde.

"No." Bobbi turned a corner, setting her eyes on the boys dormitory. "I'm going to kill Kaminsky, then I'm going to leave."


	17. Skye's Champion

"Scream and I'll give you something to scream about." Bobbi hissed in the boys ear after dragging him into an empty room. "This is how it's going to go; you're going to tell me where Skye is, or I'm going to start breaking bones."

"I'd like to see you try." Kaminsky scoffed, Bobbi grabbed his hand at the same time as Izzy gripped his shoulders painfully to keep him in place. It was almost too easy to break his finger and make him scream like a little girl.

"Skye. Where is she?" The blonde urged, already gripping his next finger.

"I don't know what you're talking-" His words were cut off with another scream.

"Your blood was in our room."

"Little brat kicked me." Kaminsky hissed out between pants of pain.

"I think that alone deserves another one." Izzy commented, Bobbi shrugged and bent his next finger until he screamed again when the bone broke.

"Next one's an arm." Bobbi threatened, "so tell me; where is Skye and why did you take her."

"I was following orders!" Kaminsky yelped, yanking his arm out of the blondes grasp. "The girl is important so Garrett said if we took her he'd get whatever information he wanted or he'd hurt her." Bobbi's blood ran cold.

"Where?" She demanded.

"I don't know. I never know, I was just told to take her to laundry before it left this morning." The boy was trembling as he was towered over by the two girls. To be fair they had just held him down and broken three of his fingers without so much as a second thought about moralities.

"You better hope no-one hurts that little girl or I'm going to hurt you ten times worse." Bobbi and Izzy left Kaminsky in the otherwise empty room.

"You're not going alone." Izzy said as soon as the door was shut behind them.

"She's not going at all." A sharp voice made them both go silent and turn slowly to face Agent Hand. "And neither are you, Hartley." Hand was staring at them with her arms crossed and her lips pursed. "What you are going to do is explain to me why you're talking about leaving instead of following orders and reporting to me."

"Skye was kidnapped-" Bobbi started; it had been hours now, she could be anywhere. They could have her out of the country by now.

"I am aware of the situation." Hand interrupted, "I am also aware that there is a very capable team running the rescue mission."

"But, we-" How long would it take for the team to get here, process the scene, track down Kaminsky, find where they took her from the laundry department and find Skye? She was already halfway there.

"Are a group of self-entitled teenagers, I know." Hand started walking down the hall, not waiting for the girls to follow. "Teenagers, not Agents."

"The same Agents that rescued a rubber ducky?" Bobbi couldn't hold it back. Sure, it had been some sort of clerical error - it could even have been her fault, she hadn't looked into the mission she'd chosen beyond it not being an extraction mission - but she wasn't the fully trained Agent that rescued a bath toy.

"Watch yourself, Morse." Hand warned lowly, opening the door to her office and gesturing the teenagers inside. "You two are going to sit here and not do anything stupid while I sort this mess out with Hill." The door closed and they could hear it lock along with Hand telling the receptionist outside that they weren't allowed out for anything under any circumstances.

* * *

 

"This isn't going to end well." Izzy sighed, lounging in one of the chairs and playing a game on her phone.

"She should really have some security on this thing; she works in a school full of teenagers training to be spies." Bobbi reasoned, tapping away, using every ounce of her extremely limited CS training. Skye was the genius in CS, she'd only taken one semester, but hopefully it was enough. "Okay, I just need to find the nanny bracelet tracking system... I mean really, Hand is a Level Eight and she doesn't even have a password on her computer." Though her S.O.C.I.A.L page did have an embarrassing number of drunk party photos from her Academy days.

"You're going to get caught or killed." Izzy supplied, though it fell on mostly deaf ears. "I swear to God, Morse, if you make me mourn you I'll never forgive you."

"And you thought I was bad at emotions." Bobbi shook snorted, internally cheering when she finally found the nanny bracelet files... Geez, S.H.I.E.L.D has a lot of people on their nanny bracelet list. "Skye, Skye, Skye... Where are you, Kid?"

"Try Poots." Izzy suggested, not looking up from her game. Bad. This was going to end so bad. "Hand probably never changed it."

"You're a genius, Iz."

"Obviously." The brunette rolled her eyes, getting up and looking over Bobbi's shoulder. "You're actually going to do this, huh?" Bobbi paused and looked up at her best friend.

"I promised her I'd always find her." And after 11 years in the Foster system Skye needed someone to keep a promise to her.

"What do you need me to do?" That made Bobbi smile, but she shook her head.

"Stay here, Iz."

"I'm not letting you do this alone."

"You can help here; keep Hand off my back for a while. But, if I screw it up bad enough I need someone here that will look out for Skye." She finally found Skye's name on the list of nanny bracelets and waited for the page to load.

"That's comforting." Izzy rolled her eyes, earning another smile. "Don't die out there?"

"Eh, maybe." It didn't take long for the GPS to upload Skye's location to her cell phone and then Bobbi was just left with the problem of getting out of S.C.H.O.L.A.R, getting to Skye's location, getting through whoever had taken her, and getting them both out alive... That sounded like a lot, Bobbi mused.

The two girls went to peak through the window in the door; the receptionist was still there, glancing over to the door every now and then, the girls waved and stepped back when she caught them. Not the door, there were no windows in the office, only pictures of tropical places that rotated every day to simulate a window. Izzy tapped Bobbi's arm and pointed up; the air vent. Before they could climb onto the desk and investigate the door opened and the receptionist eyed them suspiciously.

"You'd think for spies they'd know when not to trust teenagers." Bobbi commented, jumping up onto the desk a few minutes after the receptionist had left.

"You'd think." Izzy agreed as they studied the air vent. It was just barely out of their reach, but it looked big enough for her to fit through.

* * *

 

Bobbi and Izzy shared one last look before the blonde pulled the air vent shut and the brunette jumped off the table and put the chair back in it's rightful spot. She was on her own now, Bobbi realized as she crawled through the vent. It had looked a lot bigger when she wasn't inside it breathing in dust bunnies and trying to find a safe place to jump out so she could escape the school. Huh, she'd never thought she'd have to escape the school in the the four years she'd been there before Skye got there.

"Yay." She cheered monotonously when the first room she peaked into a good fifteen minutes after she'd left Hand's office was one of the gyms. The gym was empty when she dropped down, leaving the vent hanging open above her. "Weapons." Bobbi decided, checking out the door before exiting the gym and heading for the weapons centre. They didn't have anything good - it was a school - but there were some knives and tasers that might be able to help her.

The weapons centre was locked and guarded by an Agent who would only let them sign one weapon at a time. Luckily for her, she'd returned the knife set she'd signed out yesterday and hadn't had a chance to choose something else yet. As long as Agent Hand hadn't caught onto her escaping from her office then her chances were good for getting something out.

Guns were out; they were only allowed to use guns in the controlled environment of a class. A taser would be handy, but they ran out of juice pretty quick. Knives were fine as long as she didn't accidentally leave one after throwing it.

"Agent Stone." Bobbi greeted, it was the same Agent who had given Skye her aptitude tests on the first day.

"Morse." Stone nodded, pressing the buzzer to let her into the room.

Knives, tasers, throwing stars; "hello." A shiney black pair of batons caught her eye. The grips fit nicely in her hands as she twirled them experimentally. "I could get used to these." She mused, nicely weighted, shock barbs on the ends, could be joined together to make one long weapon.

"Nice choice." Agent Stone nodded, scanning the barcode on the batons and holding out the sign out form. For someone who was supposed to be locked in an office it really should have been harder to get a weapon from a train Agent. "One week, Morse."

"Got it." If she was allowed back in the school in a week she would return the batons... The chances weren't high, but there was still a minute possibility she might survive the week.

Now she just had to get off school property...

Shouldn't be hard; just steal a car from trained Agents, get past the gate guarded by trained Agents and somehow find her way to Skye. Easy. Except when she got to her room to grab a bag the room had been taped off, then when she went to find the car Hand had assigned her that morning - and not taken the keys back - the senior Agent herself was there, talking to a team of Agents who were armed with real weapons.

Bobbi ducked behind a wall and waited for a minute, trying to think of another way out. There wasn't another; if she had any chance of getting to Skye's she'd need a car, Agent Hand and a group of Agents were standing between her and a car. She peaked around the corner, one of the Agents received a call and stepped away from the group. Slowly an idea formed and she tugged her phone out, sending a text to Simmons;

_Make something explode!_

Hopefully Simmons wouldn't get in too much trouble. Bobbi bit her lip and peaked around the corner again. Hopefully an explosion would draw their attention long enough for her to get a car and get out. "Come on, Jem." She mumbled to herself, what if Simmons thought it was too risky to just create an explosion because her friend told her too? Simmons was great, but she didn't want to get her expelled as well.

Her head whipped in the direction of the main building; from her distance it sounded like a dull thud, but the alarms and warning tones were heard all over the campus. Hand and the other Agents went running back to the main building, all of them shouting over each other and into phones. That was a lot better than expected!

**Bring Skye back.**

Her phone pinged in her hand with a text from Simmons. Bobbi grinned, she didn't know what Simmons did to make an explosion like that, but she definitely owed the English girl something - something big - as a thank-you.

* * *

 

Skye watched the shadows stomp by right on the 1200 Mississippi mark, then she leaned back against the wall and waited. And waited. And waited. 600 Mississippi later the gravel crunched outside the window. Her finger drew another mark in the dirt next to her. Six times; first the shadow under the door, then the gravel outside the window. The routine had happened every 1200 Mississippi's - from shadow to shadow - for the last six counts. If a Mississippi was a second then it had been... She needed to draw the problem out on the dirt to figure out that it was two hours.

Skye had been sitting in this little cell with concrete walls and a dirt floor for two hours. She'd been gone longer than that though, her head was a little fuzzy after she'd woken up on the dirt floor with her face smushed into the ground and a bad bruise on her head. Her throat was sore, she had a cut on her arm that was covered in dirt now, her head was dizzy, and she really hoped Bobbi was going to find her.

This kidnapping had been worse than the other one - and how weird of an idea was that? - and she'd broken her wrist during the other one. At least she'd been awake for it before and if she'd had the piece of mind she could have watched where she was being taken, but this time they knocked her out and threw her in a cell. Before when they knocked her out she woke up in a hospital and met Bobbi, this time she woke up with her face in dirt all alone. Alone.

Bobbi hadn't been there when she woke up that morning, she remembered that much before he brain got fuzzy, so did she even know she was missing? What if Bobbi didn't come find her? What if Bobbi didn't  **want**  to find her?

No, Skye had stop herself from thinking like that or she'd start crying again, Bobbi promised that she'd always find her. And Bobbi had kept all her other promises so far. She just had to keep telling herself that and maybe it would be true.

The shadows stomped by again marking another ten minutes of her captivity. She'd trying call for help, for anything, but they ignored her and just stomped by every ten minutes and then crunched by the window ten minutes later. She'd tried climbing out the window, but it was made of metal bars and it was way of her reach so all she'd really done was jump at the wall with her hands up, trying to reach the bars.

No-one here seemed to care if she screamed or yelled or beat her fists against the door. The shadows and the crunching just kept continuing.

The shadows stomped by again.. Wait, what? The shadows had only come 200 Mississippi ago and they still had another 400 Mississippi's before they crunched outside the window. Why were they here again? The lock scraped on the old door and Skye scrambled back, pressing herself into the far corner as the door creaked open.

"Grant?" Skye forgot to be afraid at the sight of a familiar face. Grant Ward, he was Bobbi and Izzy's best friend. "Is Bobbi here too? Did you come to rescue me?" She got up and started towards him, but he still didn't say anything. "Never thought I'd be happy to see you, Robot." Because that's what he was, he was always so stiff and spouting off rules like a robot.

"Here." Ward shoved his hand out, Skye frowned at the small box in front of her.

"Huh?" She took it and frowned at it. "Why are you giving me chalk? We gotta get out of here before the shadow comes back."

"I can't help you escape." Ward look uncomfortable, his eyes downcast and away from the little girl as he spoke. "It's so you have something to do."

"Why not?" Ward took a step back, Skye moved to follow, but he held a hand on her shoulder to keep her in place. "Ward?" He took another step back, but this time Skye stayed where she was. "Grant?"

"I'm sorry, Skye, it's not personal." Ward said before he stepped out and closed the door. The lock scraped back into place and the shadows moved away at the same time as the gravel crunched outside the window, but just stood where Ward had left her; shocked.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, I have officially finished writing this story!  
> I'm thinking of posting a new chapter every 2-3 days? Yes or no?  
> Also, I've started writing part two of the series and now I just need to come up with a name for the series... Ideas?
> 
> I've also decided that I don't like the summary for the story so if you find that it randomly changes over the next few day, you're not going crazy, I am... :P
> 
> Hope you guys are enjoying :D


	18. Bobbi's Mission

Sitting in the car Bobbi had 'borrowed' at S.C.H.O.L.A.R she realised she was alone. Literally the only things she had were this car, her phone, and the batons. It was easy to get up to the gate, but then the problem arose on how to get out. There was an Agent on the gate to let people in and out.

"No-one in or out." The Agent said as soon as she pulled up.

"Agent Hill's orders." Bobbi tried not to sound like a guilty little teenager, but from the look of the guard it wasn't working.

"No-one in or out." He repeated, pointing away from the gate. Bobbi obediently backed up and turned the car off, letting out a huff. Well, it had been a long shot to start with, but how was she meant to stage a rescue mission if she couldn't even get off the property?

She sat in the car, watching the gate - for far too long - until someone on the outside drove up; the Agent on the gate said something into a little speaker that broadcasted outside - presumably the same 'no-one in or out' message - but the car didn't leave. Someone in a telltale Agent suit leaned out of the car to speak into the box on the outside and after a moment the gates started to open. Well, huh, apparently  _someone_  could get in, which left her a window to get out.

Bobbi started the car again and crept forward, waiting, waiting, waiting until the Agent had driven through before she sped up and went through the gate before the Gate Agent could close it. He yelled out angrily after her, "shit!" Bobbi yelped when the sounds of bullets hitting metal followed her. That was real bullets. They were firing real bullets on a teenager! Thank God for bullet proof vehicles.

"Okay, Skye, where are you?" Bobbi pulled to a stop when she was a few miles away, picking up her phone and bringing up her nanny bracelet tracker. "Mexico?" They took her kid to Mexico? It was going to take ages for her to get there, what if something happened to her before then? "Well,  _Hola México_." She started the car again and took off.

Somehow Bobbi always imagined her first mission would be slightly more glamorous than a 36 hour drive to Mexico to save an annoying little kid she'd only known for two months... Well, definitely less, there was no way she was sticking to speed limits when some asshole could be hurting Skye.  
She also imagined that her first mission wouldn't be as an escaped runaway and that it wouldn't most likely be her last mission. She didn't even know what she'd do when she got there. If these people were trained enough to get into a S.H.I.E.L.D facility then they were probably way too good for her to take them all down. And that's not even mentioning the fact that she had no idea what to do on the off chance that she did manage to get both of them out of there. Going back to school probably wasn't an option. She was only a few months off her 18th birthday, but Skye was still a ward of the state.

* * *

**Hour 3**

Bobbi sat in the car, once again cursing her own stupidity. Cars need gas. Gas costs money. Her bank card was with the rest of her things in her dorm room at S.C.H.O.L.A.R. She didn't even have any ID so she could go to a bank and get the money in person, not that there was a bank anywhere near by.

For a gas station in the middle of nowhere there were three other vehicles there. A family clearly on a roadtrip, a trucker with an 18 wheeler, and her mark. She should probably feel guilty about stealing from some random stranger, but she honestly had other things to worry about right now. The guy was young, probably not much older than her, and he was heading out of the gas station now. With that in mind Bobbi took a deep breath and got out. She had her phone in her hand and was pretending to focus on it as her and the guy got closer, he wasn't paying attention either which was an added bonus.

"Sorry." Bobbi appologised after she knocked into the guy.

"My fault, should look where I'm going." The guy - he was English - shook his head with an easy smile. "Especially when the sights are so beautiful." He was checking her out as she smiled and backed away from him.

"Lance Hunter." Bobbi read from the licence in his wallet. "Sorry, Lance." She shrugged, approaching the counter with a practiced smile.

Ten minutes later she was back on the road with a full tank of gas and a bag of junk food and drinks in the passenger seat. A glance at her GPS showed she was still way too far away from Skye for her to feel guilty about Lance Hunter.

Everything was looking up for the first time since she found out Skye was missing that morning; she was only 33 hours away from Skye, the car had a full tank, and no-one had called her cell demanding she go back to school or face the consequences of S.H.I.E.L.D. Bobbi hadn't been alone like this in her entire life, she realized, she was always either at S.C.H.O.L.A.R or with her parents, she'd never had more than a couple of hours of downtime to herself and now she had 36 hours and nothing but open road. It was refreshing.

* * *

**Hour 4**

Downtime alone was all well and good, Bobbi decided, but she didn't need so much of it. There was nothing on the radio, no cell service so she could stream some good music, and she was starting to go cross-eyed from staring at the road for so long. She had nothing to do in the car except think about what might be happening to Skye. And those were not fun thoughts.

Images of nameless, faceless men hitting Skye, kicking her, starving her, laughing while she sits in a cell alone and afraid. Bobbi had to pull over and get out of the car when those nameless, faceless men started appearing with weapons. The blonde stumbled out of the car and around to the side of the road to vomit on the dirt.

"Guilt'll do that to a person." Bobbi jumped at the voice; she hadn't noticed anyone when she pulled over. Then again, she'd barely been able to see straight enough to pull over with all the images assaulting her mind. "Lance Hunter." He introduced himself, "but then, you probably knew that, didn't you?"

"Shit." Bobbi swore, wiping her mouth and trying to ignore the bitter taste of vomit that still lingered.

"And that's exactly what I thought when I stopped for food only to realize that beautiful blondes have very light fingers." The man was leaning against his motorcycle with his arms crossed, glaring in her direction. "You want to tell me why you stole my wallet or are you going to vomit some more?"

"Have it back." She reached through the open window and onto the passengers seat, tossing the brown leather at the Englishman. "Sorry I took it or whatever, I'll pay you back." The nausea was passing, but the uneasy feeling she'd had since that morning was still there.

"Hold up, you stole from me, I think I deserve an explanation!" Lance Hunter sounded indignant as he stalked from his bike over to the S.H.I.E.L.D SUV.

"I'm sorry, okay? I was in a hurry and forgot my card."

"So you thought you'd rob a bloke? Stand up citizen. Why shouldn't I call the Bobby's?" Lance followed her right around to the drivers side and got between her and the door. She couldn't help it, really, it must have been the stress of the day catching up to her. There was no other explanation for why Bobbi burst out laughing at the poor man.

"Go ahead, Hunter, I'm right here." She flung her hands out and stepped away from, still laughing as the wind blew her hair around her face.

"Are you bloody insane?" A rough hand gripped her wrist tightly and yanked her forward until she stumbled into a warm chest. "Great, I was robbed by a bloody crazy person." Bobbi stood up properly and looked at Hunter, still feeling a bit giggly, but thankfully able to hold it in.

"Name's Bobbi." Though he didn't look like he got the joke. "See you 'round, Hunter." She broke free of his grip and started back to her car. He seemed too stunned to stop her as Bobbi started up the car again and took off.

Maybe driving when she was giddy, dizzy and clearly not in her right mind wasn't a smart thing to do, but Skye was too far away for her stop now. Even for Englishmen with warm chests whose wallets she stole.

* * *

**Hour 5**

Bobbi let out a huff as she pulled over and waited for her tail to do the same. She was out of the car, leaning against the passenger side when Hunter got off his bike and came up to her.

"Why are you following me?" She demanded, squinting at him through the sunlight.

"In the last two hours you've stolen from me, walked into oncoming traffic and started laughing for no reason. I think someone needs to make sure you get to your looney bin safely." Hunter shrugged, shoving his hands into the pockets of his leather jacket.

"You're the one that's been stalking a stranger on the highway for the last hour." Bobbi pointed out, crossing her arms defiantly.

"Need to make sure you don't take another poor bloke for all he's worth, don't I?"

Bobbi squinted at Lance, he stared back, she crossed her arms, he kicked at a spot in the dirt. "Look," she relented, uncrossing her arms and looking away. "I'm in a hurry here, so either take the next exit or call the cops. I don't care which, but stop following me." She ran a hand through her hair, forcing herself not to think of what the nameless/faceless men could be doing to Skye.

"What's the hurry?" Lance called as she started back to the drivers seat. "Late for your Petty Criminals United meeting?" Something seemed to set her off. Bobbi didn't know if was the condescending tone, the arrogant look on his face, or that damn sexy English accent, but she snapped.

"My kid-My kid sister was kidnapped by a creepy asshole who threatened to hurt her. She's an infuriating, tiny little thing who can be annoying as Hell, but she's only eleven years old and she was taken right out of our room this morning. So yeah, some English assholes money isn't that high on my priority list right now when Skye needs me." The slamming of the drivers door seemed to punctuate her words as she once again left Lance Hunter on the side of the road.

* * *

 

"Morse went out through the air ducts until she got to the gym, then she went to the weapons centre." Victoria Hand reported, watching the footage from her office for the third time. "Kid is determined, went straight for the bracelet files and then an exit." Though she didn't appreciate the fact that the teenager had gone through her S.O.C.I.A.L page.

"I know how to pick 'em." Maria Hill shrugged, rolling her shoulders to try and release a knot.

"Had one of the Sci-Techs make an explosion to distract us and got out the gate when someone came in." Though she'd have to talk to Simmons about the amount of property damage she'd done it had been a very nice distraction. "Remind me to talk to Roberts about using real bullets on students."

Hill pursed her lips, what sort of Agent would shoot at a teenager from their own Agency? "Where is she now?"

"About six hours - she's been speeding - made three stops, no more than ten minutes for each." The little blip of a tracker in the car was following the blondes route down the country. "You sure it's wise to let her do this?"

"Morse is right." Hill let out a sigh, "Poots-Skye-whatever she's going by. She got attached to Morse really quickly and vice versa. I'll have a team waiting, but if Morse isn't the first person Skey sees she'll start fighting and she won't stop." Victoria knew she never liked the brat. "Fury wants the kid to be synonymous with SHIELD until we find out what she is and if that means letting Morse have her joyride it's a risk he's willing to take."

"Is it a risk you want to take?" Hand raised an eyebrow. She'd known Maria longer than either woman cared to admit, and she didn't look happy. "That kid gets hurt Morse is likely to turn and take the brat with her."

"This so-called  _Clairvoyant_  wants to know about Coulson and he thinks Skye is the link to Fury... Fury died today, any information died with him." Maria pursed her lips, "dead men tell no tales."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's 4:30 AM on the 15th and since I can't sleep I'm updating this chapter instead of waiting until a normal hour of the day.
> 
> Also... Introducing LANCE HUNTER!!!
> 
> I couldn't exactly make Bobbi just appear at Skye's side and rescue her so easily; it's not realistic. And I find it highly unlikely that Hand and Hill - Deputy Director and high ranking S.H.I.E.L.D Agents - would be so easily fooled by a couple of teenagers unless they wanted to be.


	19. Chapter 19

**Hour 7**

Bobbi let out a breath when Lance Hunter finally stopped following her. Not that he had much choice in that matter; he was riding an old beat up motorbike that had definitely seen better days. The thing had started sputtering and smoking until Hunter couldn't ignore it anymore and he had to pull over. That had been ten minutes ago and she hadn't seen so much as a dust cloud to signify that he'd got it running again.

Hunter could take care of himself; he had his wallet back now, and if he didn't have a cell phone that was his own stupidity. He could call for help and he could pay for it himself, it's his own fault he didn't take the next exit like she told him to. Besides, it wasn't her fault the stupid bike broke down, that would have happened anyway.

So why was she stopping the car?

Bobbi sighed, crossing her hands over the steering wheel and resting her head on them. She was an idiot. But, she wasn't a heartless idiot. The blonde started the car back up and turned around. Hunter was exactly where she'd left him, except now he was holding his cell phone in the air and wondering in circles while squinting into the sky. The Brit looked up at the sound of a car approaching.

"Get in." Bobbi ordered, not looking at the man.

"The bike-"

"It's a piece of crap; leave it or I leave you." She wasn't in the mood for a conversation, she'd leave him at the first town they reached and they could go their separate ways.

"Alright." Hunter started to unclip his bag from the back of the bike. "Jeez. You're bossy."

"I'm also not leaving you with your broken piece of junk in the middle of nowhere, so be nice." He tossed his bag in the back of the car with enough force that it skidded across the back seat to hit the opposite door before he climbed into the passenger seat.

"You know, it's really the least you could do after you stole my wallet and used my money." Hunter stated as he buckled himself in. Bobbi was already regretting going back to pick him up.

"God, when are you going to get over that?" Come on, she'd apologized twice and given it back to him.

"It happened an hour ag-"

"It was four hours ago, Hunter. Four long hours. Three of which you've been stalking me." Bobbi interrupted with a roll of her eyes.

"Not stalking; making sure you don't rob another poor bloke trapped in your web of beauty. You've set a precedence for it." Hunter stated matter-of-factly, already making himself comfortable and rolling down the window.

"If that's your way of complimenting someone. Don't." Bobbi shook her head, how did she always end up attracting the most annoying people? Although Skye had grown on her, that wouldn't happen with Hunter. She wouldn't let it. Nope. "Don't touch that." He'd been reaching for the radio dial.

"Why not?" He sounded whiney, but if she could resist Skye's whining in the morning she could resist him.

"My car, my rules." She slapped his hand away when he reached for it again.

"My money, my gas; I think that gives me a say." Hunter reached for the radio again, already using his other hand to stop Bobbi from slapping him again.

"Stop it." She grumbled, trying to squirm her hand free. "I swear to God if you put some stupid shit on my radio I'll-"

"Ow!" Hunter flinched back when Bobbi flicked him on the temple after getting her hand free. Though she didn't turn the radio off. "Bloody violent women." He muttered, rubbing his temple and frowning at his new travel companion.

* * *

**Hour 7 1/2**

"So you said your sister was taken, right? Do you know where or are you just driving around robbing blokes and hoping you find her?" Hunter broke the silence that had descended on the car while listening to the radio.

"Mexico." And even with her ignorance of the speed limits she was still at least 24 hours away. "You can get out at the next town."

"And you weren't content to let the authorities handle it, why?"

"Because I promised I'd always find her." She gripped the steering wheel tightly. Hill always told her not to make promises she couldn't keep, but she was determined to keep this one. If no other promise than this one at least.

"So what do you do when you're not robbing handsome men and rescuing missing sisters?" Bobbi pressed the gas pedal down further. The sooner she got to the next town the better.

"What is this; twenty questions? Why do you want to know?" She glanced at him from the corner of her eye.

"I'd like to know who I'm in a vehicle with; I'd really prefer it if you didn't steal from me  _and_  kill me." As he spoke Hunter was going through the glove compartment and searching through the snacks she'd bought... Well, technically he'd bought them.

"I will kill you if you don't shut up." Bobbi threatened, she could feel a headache growing behind her eyes.

"You are slightly terrifying, you know that?" Hunter commented which made Bobbi smile for some reason, focussing her eyes back on the road.

* * *

**Hour 8 1/2**

Bobbi let out a sigh when she finally reached the edge of a small town. Finally! "Out." She pulled to a stop outside a gas station. It seemed appropriate, she first saw him at a gas station and now she was leaving him at one. "Hunter." The man in question didn't reply and Bobbi looked over. She knew it had been too quiet for the last ten minutes; Lance was fast asleep in the passengers seat with his face smushed against the window, letting out the occasional snore. "Fine." Bobbi started driving again, she didn't have the time to try and wake the asshole. If he woke up she'd let him out at the next town.

* * *

**Hour 10**

"See, I was thinking of going blonder before I head back home, do you think this would suit me?" Hunter questioned, tugging on a lock of her hair. "You have very soft hair, what shampoo do you use?" Bobbi slapped his hand away from her hair and pointedly ignored him. "When's it my turn to drive anyway?" He had the attention span of a hyperactive goldfish.

"You don't get a turn." Bobbi burst, so much for ignoring him. "I'm leaving you at the next town; this isn't a road trip, Hunter. We're strangers, not friends going across the country."

"You said that three towns ago. I'm starting to lose faith in your convictions." Hunter pointed out, reaching for her hair again. "Is this natural? Because I thought about going Sun Kissed blonde once before, but this is a much better color."

"I'm not a bottle blonde!" Bobbi denied indignantly. She really would kick his ass for that one.

"You have a point; we're strangers. For all I know you're a psychotic killer." Hunter changed topics again, turning his whole body in the passengers seat to face her. "So tell me about Bobbi."

"..." Bobbi turned her head to glare at him, feeling her irritation rise. Why hadn't she kicked him out in the last three towns?

"Okay, I'll start; Lance Hunter, future SAS cadet, current tourist, starsign-" The Englishman started list.

"Shut up." After 47 times repeating that same phrase Bobbi was nearly pleading with Hunter. He didn't seem to have an off switch, he just kept talking and talking and talking.

"I like long walks on the beach under the stars and-"

" _Please_  shut up." The blonde begged, aproaching the fourth town since she'd gone back to pick Hunter up.

"I'll stop talking if you let me drive after supper." The man compromised with a cocky grin.

"What supper? What driving? You're staying here and I'm leaving." As if to punctuate the point Bobbi pulled to a stop at an old timey looking saloon/diner.

"I'm doing my gentlemanly duty by making sure you are properly fed and safe to drive. I think it's the least you can do since you stole from me." Lance spoke through the window after getting out, holding onto the door and staring at her with dark brown puppy eyes. God, why did she have a weakness for brown puppy eyes. First Skye now Hunter...

"When are you going to shut up about that?" Bobbi hit her head back against the headrest a couple of times.

"One dinner, Sweetheart." It was the accent, Bobbi decided as she unbuckled her seatbelt.

"Half an hour." The blonde slammed her door and walked ahead of Hunter to the diner, ignoring the smug look on his face.

"Yes, Ma'am." The diner was an old building that had clearly been around for a long time and at 8:30 at night it was nearly empty so naturally everyone turned to stare at the two newcomers. "So tell me about this sister that's got you border jumping." Hunter said after they'd chosen a table and given their orders to the waitress.

"Why?" Bobbi narrowed her eyes; he seemed awfully interested for a stranger. And he'd been following her all day. What if he was a ruse? A Distraction to keep her from Skye.

"I'm making conversation here." Hunter held up his hand defensively. "Besides, you know everything about me-"

"Because you don't shut up."

"-and I know nothing about you. I think it's only fair." Blue eyes met brown for a long moment before she looked away.

"Skye is..." Bobbi let out a breath, shaking her head. "She's an annoying little brat who won't wake up in the morning, hoards candy like a squirell and somehow managed to get bacon stuck in her cast."

"Sounds... Charming?" Hunter wrinkled his nose.

"She's a sweet kid, really." The blonde smiled, absently picking at her nails. "Witty, cuddly, so smart..." Bobbi mentally shook herself and sat up straight. "I'm getting her back if it's the last thing I do."

* * *

Skye sniffled, curling her arms around her knees tighter and pressing her back into the cold, hard wall of her cell. It was dark, it was cold, she was hungry, and she was alone.

Bobbi wasn't here. Ward never came back. Ward. Why was Ward here? The box of chalk he'd given her had been torn, thrown, kicked and stomped until pieces of chalk and cardboard littered the floor.  
Skye could feel herself trembling, though she didn't know if it was the cold or the fear. She was certainly cold enough in her pajamas from that morning, and she was definitely terrified. The crunch outside the window was the only indication of time now; she'd long since stopped counting the Mississippi's, but it was at least twice as long as the route usually was. Less guard at night, her mind provided, but she didn't care much. She was cold, hungry, scared, and she just wanted Bobbi to find her like she promised.

"Zero one zero zero zero zero zero one." Skye mumbled to herself, anything to keep herself awake. She wouldn't sleep, if she slept they might do something to her - not that she could do anything to stop them when she couldn't even stop them from taking her - but she wanted to be awake, she wanted to know if they were going to hurt her. "Zero one zero zero zero zero one zero. Zero one zero zero zero zero one one..." Her voice was hoarse and her throat hurt, but she kept going.

By the time Skye got to M - 01001101 - her words were barely making sense even to her, but she sat up straighter when a light appeared at the tiny window at the top of her cell door. They were coming for her! They were going to hurt her now! Something outside the door shuffled, Skye pressed herself further into the corner as if that would make them not take her.

Something fell through the bars of the window and landed with a soft thump inside the cell. The light moved away and Skye was left in the cold, dark cell again. She crawled over to the thing on the floor, using the moonlight through the outside window for light, and reached for it hesitantly. A blanket! It was scratchy and she could feel lots of holes in it and it smelled funny, but it was a blanket. She grabbed it quickly and crawled back to her corner, hugging the blanket close.

"Zero one zero zero one one one zero." Skye wrapped the blanket around herself as best she could to try and get warm, a fresh wave of tears coming for no reason at all. "Zero one zero zero one one one one..."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, I'm mean like that; give you chapter of Hunter and Bobbi bickering and light-hearted arguing and then I end it with Skye in a cell, freezing and alone and scared. Aren't I a nice person?


	20. Chapter 20

**Hour 12 1/2**

Lance Hunter suppressed a yawn and shook himself a little to keep himself awake. It was easy when there was someone to talk to, but the pretty blonde was snoozing in the passengers seat. She really looked far too adorable with her knees up to her chest, one hand cushioned between her head and his leather jacket - he was a gentleman, damnit - and the other tucked under her chin, a tiny frown on her face even in her sleep.

Lance honestly had no idea what he'd gotten himself into; one minute he was checking out a beautiful blonde at a garage, the next he realized she'd picked his pocket, then another moment and he was seeing her throwing up on the side of the road. Sure, he'd been pissed, but that had been until she'd come out with the news that someone had taken her sister. He was an English gentleman, not an asshole, he wasn't just going to let her go off on a rescue vendetta alone.

Getting back into the car after supper hadn't been nearly as difficult as he had expected; he'd just followed her out to the car and climbed into the passenger seat. They'd had a staring contest of sorts until she'd just shook her head and started driving. After that it had only taken half an hour of badgering for her to relinquish the drivers seat to him. Though it would probably help if he had more directions than 'go south to the border'. Turns out Bobbi wasn't big on sharing details.

Details like their destination - beyond Mexico - her last name, her occupation, why she felt the need to jump countries instead of letting the police find her sister.  
Lance was starting to feel like he only had half the story.

"Skye." Bobbi let out a mumble in her sleep, her brows furrowing and her fist clenching. He wasn't worried, this was the third time she'd mumbled for her sister. "No. Stop." Well, this was the first time she'd gone beyond 'Skye' in her sleep. "No... Not Skye." A sharp intake of breath was the only indication anything in her sleep pattern had changed. Lance found himself holding his breath until - nearly a minute later - Bobbi let out a slow breath and sat up properly. "Pull over."

"Oh of course." Hunter grumbled when it became apparent the blonde wasn't going to elaborate. "No please. No thank-you. Just order me around like a servant boy." He continued to jest as he pulled the car to a stop. As soon as the car stopped Bobbi had her seatbelt unbuckled and was leaning out the open door. Lance realised this was the second time he'd seen her throwing up, and yet he still thought she was beautiful... Must be something wrong with him. Vomit was an automatic turn-off and yet he was still following - driving her right now - this woman across the country. "Lovely."

Bobbi grabbed a bottle of water and rinsed out her mouth before sitting back in the car with a sigh. "Drive." She ordered after a minute, buckling her seatbelt again.

"Care to explain that?"

"Nope." Bobbi rubbed her sleeve over her sweaty forehead, images of her dream flashing behind her eyelids every time she closed them.

"'Cause if you're going to die, I'd like to know ahead of time." Lance continued, glancing at her as he drove.

"I had a bad dream." The blonde rolled her eyes, "I'm not dying."

"Hell of a dream." Lance muttered under his breath.

* * *

**Hour 14**

"Aren't you going to stop and sleep properly?" Hunter was back in the passenger seat after a bathroom break - the man seemed to have the bladder of a goldfish.

"Did you know most kidnap victims are dead within the first twenty-four hours?" Bobbi snapped back, "it's a thirty-six hour drive to Skye."

"How do you even know where she is?" Hunter reached for a candy bar, "I mean, it's not like they left a map when they took her, right?" Bobbi bit her lip; a normal person wouldn't have a tech-canceling nanny bracelet that had an embedded tracker... Normal 11-year-olds probably didn't have trackers at all.

"I'm tracking her." Technically true; she was using the nanny bracelet to track her.

"Tracking?" Hunter sounde sceptical. Bobbi reached for her phone, tossing it to his lap; the flashing green location of Skye's bracelet still looked way too far away from where they were. " _Why_  does your sister have a tracker?" That was a good question. One that Bobbi didn't have an answer for without giving him classified information. Instead of answering the blonde shrugged and focussed resolutely on the road ahead of her. "You're kind of scary, you know that?" He sniffed at his candy bar before offering the half eaten candy to her by shoving it in her face.

"Ew." Bobbi wrinkled her nose and pushed his hand away.

"Does it taste funny to you?" He had seemingly moved on from her tracking Skye, which Bobbi was relieved about.

"I don't know." She swatted his hand away again.

"Doesn't taste right, American chocolate tastes weird." Hunter shrugged and continued eating.

"Maybe English chocolate is weird." Bobbi rolled her eyes, "get that out of my face." When he put it right in front of her again. "Do you have an off switch or something?"

"Why would you want one? All Lance all the time is better, I say." He turned fully in his seat, nearly contorting out of the seatbelt, to reach for his bag in the back seat. Thankfully he hadn't found the batons she had stashed under the drivers seat yet. "This-" his voice was strained and his ass was nearly in her face.

"Would you sit down? I don't need to be up close and personal with your ass." The blonde yanked on his belt loop.

Hunter looked at her under his arm and between the seats with a crooked grin. "We could switch if you want; up close and personal with your ass is  **definitely**  something I need."

"Ew." Bobbi whispered to herself, of course she managed to pick up a stalking, perverted weirdo wrapped in a hot English accent and warm brown eyes.

"Now this is real chocolate." Hunter finally sat back in his seat properly "Try it." It looked like the exact same brand except it was apparently English.

"No thanks."

"Try it." Hunter persisted, taking a bite as if to prove it was better.

"I don't want to try it."

"You don't know what you're missing."

"Let's keep it that way."

"I won't shut up if you don't try it."

"I won't try it if you keep slobbering all over it."

"It just adds to the flavour; chocolate a la Hunter."

"Chocolate a la gross is more like-" Bobbi was cut off when Hunter unceremoniously shoved a piece of the chocolate in her mouth.

"Chew. Savour. Swallow." Hunter commanded with a grin, his hand still over her mouth to stop her spitting it out. Bobbi stuck her tongue out instead and licked his hand. "Not gonna work on me, Love." He smirked, keeping his hand in place as she glared at him.

* * *

**Hour 19**

It was somewhere near five am and the sun was rising right in front of her. Maybe she would have enjoyed the sight on another occasion. As it were Skye was kidnapped, she hadn't slept properly since this time yesterday, for some reason she had a travel companion on her way to find Skye, and he was snoring.

Maybe in another universe this would have been a happy road trip; Skye sitting next to her in the passengers seat, the two of them singing along to stupid music on the radio, Simmons lecturing about every interesting thing she saw, Hartley mocking them all, Hunter complaining from the back that he wanted to drive-... Nope. Nope, not going there. Hunter definitely wasn't in any sort of fantasy road trip. He wasn't even meant to be on this trip. He just wouldn't leave her alone and she didn't have the time to argue with him.

"Turn the lights off." Hunter grumbled next to her, trying futilely to block his eyes.

"That's the sun, Idiot." Bobbi shook her head. Definitely no Hunter in her fantasy road trip.

"Turn the sun off then, Love." He tossed his head to the other side with a whine.

"Yeah, sure, I control the position of the sun with my mind." She scoffed.

"Great, I could do with a few more hours kip." Hunter stretched awkwardly, his arms touching the roof of the car. "Coffee soon?" His voice was a sleep roughened growl and it certainly didn't make butterflies erupt in Bobbi's stomach. No butterflies, not a single one.

"Here." She'd stopped at the last gas station fifteen minutes ago and still had half of a lukewarm cup of crappy take away coffee. "Tastes like shit." She warned, handing it to him with a shrug.

"It's caffeine, doesn't matter what it tastes like." Hunter practically inhaled the drink, letting out a guttural moan. "That tastes rubbish."

"Told ya." Bobbi smirked, running a hand tiredly through her hair.

"How much longer? I'm actually looking forward to a rescue mission if it means I get to stretch my legs." He shuffled in his seat and looked around the outside of the car. It looked nearly identical to before he'd fallen asleep with exception of it being sunrise instead of the middle of the night.

"Oh no." Bobbi stopped the car, turning to face him. "You're staying at the next-"

"The next town?" Hunter raised his eyebrows with a smirk. "You've been saying that for over twelve hours, Love, give it up."

"That was a mistake, but this isn't your problem." She swallowed thickly.

"I made it my problem."

"Well unmake it; she's my kid, she's my responsibility, I'm not taking some British stranger in to rescue her and ending up getting all three of us killed." And if he wouldn't get out of the car before she got there she'd knock him out if she had to and leave him on the side of the road... Why did she have to go back and pick up him in the first place?

"Your kid? I thought she was your sister?" Bobbi hit head back against her headrest with a groan.

"My kid sister." She ground out. Technically it  _could_  be true; it wasn't, but it could have been. "She's six years younger than me, she's a kid." The blonde reasoned. "Just don't argue. I'm going for Skye alone." Blue eyes glared into brown. Hunter frowned and grumbled, but didn't say anything, though Bobbi knew this wasn't the end of the fight.

* * *

**Hour 24**

"You said the kid - who may or may not be your sister - was eleven, right?" Lance questioned, keeping a careful eye on Bobbi.

"Yeah." Or at least as far as her file said; no-one knew when her actual birthday was, just the date she was left at the orphanage.

"And she's six years younger than you?" He had a sinking pit in his stomach.

"So?"

"Are you telling me I've been in a car on a border-hoping rescue trip with a jailbait  _seventeen_ -year-old?" He could see the moment Bobbi realised what he was saying; her whole body tensed, her grip on the steering wheel tightened and her eyes widened. "You're SEVENTEEN?" He yelped, he'd been thinking very jailbait thoughts about her. About a 17-year-old!

"I'll be eighteen in six months?" Bobbi really did try not to sound like a guilty little teenager.

"Bloody Hell!" Lance pressed himself against the car door as if that would make him feel less dirty. "Kill me now! If the SAS find out I'll never get in." He realised as Bobbi rolled her eyes. "Five generations of Hunters in the Armed Forces and I'm not getting accepted once they find out I kidnapped a seventeen-year-old-"

"You didn't kidnap me." Bobbi scoffed, he certainly could be dramatic.

"That's not how they'll see it." He shook his head, keeping himself against the door. "They'll see a nineteen-year-old  _adult_  taking a  **minor**  across the border into another country. That'll be the end of me."

"Like anyone would believe that you could kidnap me." She'd have him flat on his back the second the thought arose. She could beat the crap out of boys twice his size in her combat classes without breaking a sweat. "I'm a black belt." Bobbi bragged, flashing him a smile that did nothing to ease his fears.

"A seventeen-year-old minor, bloody scary woman  _and_  dangerous." Lance rolled his eyes, "lovely. Bloody lovely." He flopped back to sit in the seat properly, "let me out now if you don't mind, I'd rather not be arrested." He said lightly, earning another roll of her eyes.

"It took you twenty hours to figure that out?" Bobbi wondered aloud, she hadn't been broadcasting her age or anything, but she hadn't been hiding it. She was sure it had come up earlier though, right? She knew his age because she'd stolen his wallet and it had his licence inside with all his details on it, but surely her age had come up in the last twenty hours?

"Well,  **sorry**  if I didn't automatically assume that not only were you a pick-pocketing little minx, but an underaged minor as well." Lance huffed, crossing his arms petulantly.

"So, how old did you think I was?" The - woefully under age - girl asked curiously, making Hunter flush and go silent. "What? Don't tell me you're regretting the ass comments." She snorted, which only seemed to make him redder. "Twenty-one?" She guessed when he didn't say anything. If she could get away with 21 that would be totally awesome for Summer vacation.

"I don't know, like nineteen or twenty. Certainly not  _seventeen_." Hunter muttered defensively.

"I'll be eighteen in six months." She reminded, it's not like she was a little kid pretending to be an adult. She was 17! "So if I look a few years older do you think my friend Izzy and I could get into a bar? We get weekend trips at school sometimes and there's this bar in town..."

"Six months!" Hunter seemed ignore the other end of her pondering. "Six months means that six months ago you were sixteen. Don't use six months as if that makes it better; you're still a seventeen-year-old jailbait. Alone. In a car. With a foreign, older man."

"Older." Bobbi snorted, "I'm pretty sure anyone of importance would believe me over you; I'm way more mature."

"How'd you figure that, Little Miss Lie About My Age?"

"I didn't lie, I just didn't say."

"Which is as good as lying."

"It's omission, not lying. It's not my fault you  _assumed_  I was older."

"You let me."

"Why? Because I didn't introduce myself as seventeen? I wasn't hiding it."

"You certainly weren't broadcasting it. Now I'm going to be arrested for robbing the cradle."

"Not unless  _you_  lie and say something happened, which it totally didn't because  **ew**."

"Ew? Why ew? I'll have you know I am a very attractive man."

"Maybe in your own imagination." The two bickered back and forth as Bobbi continued to drive, neither of them noticing that they had passed through yet another town without Hunter getting out of the car.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Only 2 more chapters left in this installment!  
> As far as a name for the series goes I was thinking of making Students and acronym (S.T.U.D.E.N.T(possible S)) but the only letter I know is one of the T's could be Teenagers so if anyone has any ideas I am totally open.
> 
> So far I have the first 3 chapters of part 2 written, but I have a problem because I have 3 chapters going in one direction and then an entire other 3 chapters going in another direction... I guess I'll keep writing both and whichever one comes out ahead by the time AoS comes back on TV is the one I'll go with. :P


	21. Dark Skye's

Skye's stomach was achey. This was worse than the time she'd gotten lost in the maze when she was six and the Coopers hadn't come to find her. Worse than the time she tried to run away from the Wilkersons because the older kids kept locking her in the closet over night. Worse than the first time she was kidnapped and the man in the car ignored her until she was too tired to fight.

At least the Coopers left her at a fair and the fair people had found her in the morning. At least the Wilkersons let her out in the morning and they fed her three meals a day. At least S.H.I.E.L.D had led her to Bobbi who was nice to her - most of the time - even when she broke the rules and got in trouble.

Skye was huddled in a corner with her broken pieces of chalk, absently drawing on the concrete walls even though she was really tired because she was trying not to sleep. Not that it worked because she had woken up in the morning which meant that she'd fallen asleep during the night. What if they hurt her in her sleep and she didn't know? Her head still felt fuzzy and when she touched the bump it made her wince.

It felt like she'd been in this cell for forever. What if Bobbi wasn't coming to find her? What if they hurt Bobbi instead? What if they just left in this cell until she died? Skye didn't want to die! Skye wanted to go back home. Back to Bobbi and Simmons and Izzy and Trip and Fitz... Not Ward. Ward was here and he wouldn't help her escape. Why wouldn't he help her escape? Was he one of the bad guys that kidnapped her? Was he always a bad guy or did he just do it because he didn't like her?

It was almost enough to make her want to cry again, but she couldn't cry anymore. Her tears had dried up and they wouldn't come anymore. Skye knew, from when Simmons would start rambling about science and stuff that humans could only survive three days without water. It had already been at least one day since she was kidnapped and it didn't appear that anyone was coming to rescue her, or that her kidnappers were going to give her water. What would happen after three days? Would she just die? That didn't seem like a very nice way to die.

Skye couldn't even focus enough to know when the shadows and crunching would come around. Not that it would do her much good. She couldn't stop the shadows, or make the crunching go away. She couldn't even stop herself from being kidnapped... Twice!

Skye determined when her hand dropped the chalk and she didn't have the strength to pick it up again, she was having a very bad couple of days.

* * *

**Hour 33**

"Hey, Bob." Hunter tugged the ends of her hair to get her attention.

"Yeah." The teenage girl tried to ignore the tingling in her scalp when he kept playing with the ends of her hair.

"What does it mean when it flashes red?" He held her phone up to her; the little green flashing dot that represented Skye was now flashing red with a tiny exclamation point next to it.

"Give me that!" She yanked the phone out of his hands, slamming her foot on the break as Hunter yelped and reached for the steering wheel that she'd abandoned. "Skye." The uneasy pit in her stomach intensified as she tapped through the setting for the tracking app. "What have they done, Miniature?" Oh, look! Apparently the bracelets had vitals monitors in them as well. Handy.

Except when it filled Bobbi with dread because the red dot and the exclamation point apparently meant Skye's vitals weren't doing so good. Erratic, slow heartbeat, low blood-sugar levels, low hydration... They were starving her kid!

"Last chance to get out, Hunter." Bobbi muttered lowly, they were only a few more minutes drive from the little flashing dot. Only a few minutes away from Skye. Her Skye. "Just so you know, I'm going to kill someone. And it won't be pretty."

"Hey, if I haven't left yet what makes you think I'm gonna leave now?" Hunter half-grinned and Bobbi wasn't too sure what to say to that so she started the car again. Just a few more minutes.

The minutes were long, silent and tense. Until Bobbi pulled up to a stop outside a closed barbershop that still had all the lights on inside. Bobbi and Lance shared a bewildered look; someone had kidnapped an 11-year-old girl to a barbershop in Mexico? They could see through the window to see an old man shaving another man in a barber chair. Not unusual for a barbershop.

"I'll go in, scope the place out, if I'm not back in ten minutes I'm getting a shave." Hunter decided, unbuckling his seatbelt and running a hand over his two day old scruffy beard.

"Woah." Bobbi held up her hand. "What makes you think I'm sending you in there alone? They could be armed, they could be murderers, they could be the assholes that took Skye."

"And if I get a bad vibe I'll signal you." Hunter said obviously, already getting out of the car before Bobbi could argue some more. The blonde waited about thirty seconds until Hunter had disappeared into the barbershop before reaching under her chair for her batons. This seemed like a fantastic time to test them out. She held them in her hands, testing the weight and checking the electroshocks on the end, before she got out of the car.

In the barbershop Bobbi caught a glimpse of Hunter fighting with the man who had been getting a shave. He was actually doing quite well, Bobbi mused. So much for a signal, she rolled her eyes. She closed her eyes and took in a deep breath, focussing herself.

BANG!

The three men in the barbershop froze when Bobbi kicked the door open and strolled in with her batons held at her sides at the ready. The man who appeared to work at the barbershop was stood in a corner looking bewildered. The man who was being shaved was on the floor with Hunter, both of them looking up at her in shock. Bobbi used that to her advantage, pulling the older man - he looked vaguely familiar, maybe from the news or something, she got a spoilt rich boy vibe from him - off Hunter and pushing him into a chair, holding her batons.

"One move and you get a hundred thousand volts and I guarantee it won't be fun." Bobbi threatened, pressing the shock ends of her battons to either side of the man's neck which made him freeze.

"Easy now." The man held his hands up in surrender.

"Bloody terrifying." Hunter whispered in admiration.

"I'm going to ask questions, you're going to answer. If I don't like the answers you're going to get a hundred thousand volts." Bobbi continued, "if you try and move you're going to get a hundred thousand volts. If you try and signal for help-"

"I get a hundred thousand volts?" The man guessed making Bobbi press the shocks into his neck harder.

"You're in a closed barbershop at eight o'clock, why?" Boy, she hoped she hadn't just attacked some random guy getting a shave.

"I don't like the crowds." Pretty little rich boy yelped immediately. "You haven't had a shave until you've had an Ernesto shave."

"I've  _never_  had a shave." Bobbi rolled her eyes.

"Really, it's a good thing, bearded ladies are not my fetish." Hunter spoke up from where he was now standing by the door with his arms crossed. Bobbi looked over to him with an incredulous expression.

"Skye." The blonde turned back to her captive.

"What?" The man tried to turn and look at her, but she pressed her batons into his neck harder.

"Skye, the girl, where is Skye?" She demanded, she was starting to feel a little trigger happy. If she didn't get to her kid soon she was going to shock someone.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"He really doesn't." Bobbi whirled around at the second voice, spinning into a fighting stance as the man in the chair scrambled away. "No why don't you put those down, Sweetheart, and no-one has to get hurt." It was a middle-aged man in a turtleneck with a wicked gleam in his eyes. Seriously, what middle aged man wore turtlenecks?

"Well, you seem to know something about the girl, so why don't you take his place." Hunter offered, still standing by the door, though he looked like he wanted to be closer to Bobbi if the way his eyes were darting was any indication.

"You know, we expected someone to come for her." The man continued as if Hunter wasn't even there. "We weren't expecting teenagers though. What, Fury couldn't spare a real agent for his precious asset?" He was calm. Way too calm.

"Where. Is. Skye?" Bobbi gripped her batons tighter, this was going to end in a fight, she knew it. She just hoped she could use a surprise attack to get the upper hand.

"I could tell you." The man grinned, a feral sight that made Bobbi's stomach twist. "But, I'd have to kill you." That seemed to be an attack code because as soon as he'd said it a dozen men burst from behind back doors and through the front door. Hunter tried to fight, and he got in a few good hits, but he was an untrained civilian against four trained men. Bobbi managed to shock the first man that reached her and sent him twitching to the ground before the next one could get hold of her.

Bobbi wasn't going down without taking as many of them with her as she could. The one she'd shocked, one she managed to kick in the head when another was trying to hold her, another one that got too close to her legs was left clutching himself when she got a good kick to his groin. One man grabbed her legs so she couldn't kick anymore - someone was dragging Hunter away - she slammed her head back against the one hold her arms and torso. Oh, wow, that hurts!

To be honest, Bobbi thought as her vision grew blurry when one of the men hit her over the head with own baton, she had done better than she thought she would against a dozen men. But, it wasn't enough to get her to Skye.

* * *

Skye startled when there was scuffling and shuffles outside he cell door. It was dark again. Night time again and she was still in the cell. The cell door scraped open and she didn't even have the energy to try and hide as the room was flooded with light and people. Not good people. Good people would have helped her. These people dropped two big heavy things on the floor and left, locking the door with a scrape. It all happened in less the minute and then she was left alone again.

Slowly she crept over to the big lumps that had been brought it. One looked way too familiar with long limbs, a slender body and bright golden hair. Bobbi! Skye rushed to her, her weak fingers brushing locks of gold hair out of Bobbi's face. Her eyes weren't open and she wasn't responding to touch, but her chest was rising and falling which gave Skye some relief; she wasn't dead.

"Bobbi." Skye shook her as best she could. Bobbi had come to rescue her. Or at least she tried. The bad guys must have hurt her. "Wake up, Bobbi." Skye scrubbed at her eyes even though she couldn't cry anymore.

The other lump - another person - let out a groan and Skye's eyes darted to him, though she stayed next to Bobbi, unsure if the other person was safe. Though, if they were in the cell too they were probably a prisoner as well. Slowly. Ever so slowly, Skye moved away from Bobbi and over to the other person. A boy; a man really, was lying in the dirt a few feet away.

"Hello?" Her voice was a hoarse whisper, but it made the mad groan again so she thought that meant he heard her. "Hello?" She crept a little closer, but he didn't do anything this time. She reached his face and looked at him, he had a big bruise growing on the side of his face and his eye, and his chest was rising and falling too, but he didn't respond when she tried to shake him.

If he wasn't awake either than Skye was going back to Bobbi. Bobbi who had promise months - was it really only two months? - ago that she would always find her. Bobbi who had found her even when she'd been kidnapped. Skye curled up next to Bobbi, keeping and arm over her stomach as if that would stop someone from separating them and put her head on the blondes chest, taking relief in the steady rise and fall, and the thrumming heartbeat under her ear.

* * *

Bobbi was the first one awake, she could feel a weight on her chest and kept very still. Her head hurt like a bitch, her muscles ached, her mouth felt like cotton wool. It took a moment to remember what had happened and where she was - she didn't know that anymore, she could have been taken anywhere when she was unconscious.

Slowly Bobbi lifted her head; darkness, the only light came from a window high off the ground that let in the moonlight. Dirt, she was lying in the dirt. Cold, it was mid November, nearly winter. Weight, there was a weight on her chest. She managed to look down to her chest despite the throbbing in her head - that was going to leave a mark - to see a head of dark hair on her chest.

"Skye?" God, she felt like crap. "Skye?" The little girl whined in her sleep, but it was the most beautiful sound Bobbi had heard in a long time. Skye's voice. Skye was alive. She couldn't say okay, but she was alive. Bobbi forced herself to sit up, cradling Skye as best she could. "Hey, Miniature." She smiled weakly, brushing some dirty hair out of her face. "I promised I'd find you."

Bobbi looked around the room better, her and Skye, another body a few feet away that look suspiciously like Hunter. Concrete walls, a big metal door with a window near the top that had bars through it, a window on the opposite wall to the door that was high up and covered with bars as well. It seemed like a standard villians prison cell. Yay!

Bobbi crawled over to the corner furthest from the door with Skye in her arms and leant back against the concrete with a sigh. She'd found her kid. Now she just had to figure a way to get the three of them out of there. She looked over to Hunter, laying in the middle of them room. Who would have thought they'd be lock in a cell together when she picked his pocket yesterday - was it yesterday or longer? How long had she been unconscious?

Skye was the second one awake, her itty bitty teeny tiny baby hands clenching into fists against Bobbi's shirt as she was pulled back awake. She was warm, Skye realised, or at least warmer than before. It took her a moment to realise it was because someone was holding her.

"Hey, Miniature." Bobbi! Skye smiled up at her and moved to sit more comfortably against the wall as well, keeping Bobbi's arm around her and one hand still fisted in the blondes shirt. "God, I missed you, Kid."

"You found me." Skye was happy as Bobbi kissed the top of her head even though her hair must be really dirty.

"Yeah." Bobbi didn't want to ever let go. When did this happen? When did she become so dependent on an annoying, bratty 11-year-old? "I promised I would always come back to you, didn't I?"

"Yeah."

"I also promise that I'm gonna get you out of here, okay?"

"'Kay."

"I like promise too, you know!" Hunter announced he was awake with a groan, swearing under his breath.

"Congratulations." Bobbi said dryly, though she couldn't help the relief that he was okay enough to make jokes.

"Great." Hunter sat up and pushed himself to lean against a wall, holding his head in pain. "We found the kid, now what's the plan to get us all out of here?"

"Didn't think that far ahead." Bobbi admitted.

"You didn't think that was an important part of the plan?" Hunter demanded incredulously, "there were literally only two parts you needed; step one, find the kid. Done. Step two, escape."

"Hey, my kid, my rescue plan." Bobbi snapped defensively.

"Clearly not; you only had half the plan, now look where we are." Hunter retaliated, letting out an annoyed huff.

"Hey, you don't get to be indignant, I told you to get out. You're the one that wanted to stay." The blonde pointed out with a roll of her eyes.

"Because I thought you had a plan." Hunter yelled back.

"Shut up!" They were both surprised when it was Skye that yelled back at him. Skye was surprised too, her throat hurt so bad that she didn't think she could still yell that loud. "Bobbi promised to find me and she did, and now she promised we'd escape so we will." Bobbi squeezed her arm around her shoulders and kissed the top of Skye's head again. Such unwavering trust. After her declaration of assuredness Skye let out a yawn that reminded Bobbi it had been a long few days for the girl.

"Get some sleep, Kid, I'll figure something by morning." Which could be at any time, really, she couldn't see her watch to know what time it was, but it was either still dark from when they'd reached the barbershop, or dark again - that thought made her stomach twist.

"Here." Hunter shuffled in his corner for a minute before something landed on the ground near the girl. Bobbi reached for it and smiled when she found it was his leather jacket which she silently wrapped around Skye, making sure she was as warm as possible.

"Thanks, Hunt-... Thanks, Lance."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Only one chapter left!
> 
> And, yes, I know that Garrett's base under Ernesto's barber shop was in Cuba, but Bobbi couldn't very well drive to Cuba, could she? So it got a bit of a relocation to somewhere in Mexico.


	22. To Thrill A Mockingbird

When Lance woke up the sun was up, which was a plus, but he was cold, his whole body ached and his head was throbbing. Two voices across the room made it better. Sure, he may be an idiot for following a girl he didn't know across the country and into another country, but he couldn't just leave her alone when she was supposedly on a rescue mission. A mission that turned out to be real, judging by the little girl that was in cell the with them. Maybe his instincts weren't as bad as he thought.

"Hold up!" Lance had been watching the girls whispering in their own corner for a few minutes when he realised something.

"What?" Bobbi looked over to him; how was it possible that she still looked stunning after not bathing for at least two days, fighting a group of men in black villian-standard outfits, and being in a dirt room over night? It didn't seem human.

"I thought you said it was your sister?" He rubbed his eyes just to make sure; yep, that little girl was definitely part asian. Looking from the girl to Bobbi and back they certainly didn't look related. "You two don't look related."

"I'm a foster kid." Skye shrugged, not questioning that the man thought Bobbi was her sister. She wouldn't mind being Bobbi's sister.

"Way to be insensitive, Hunter." Bobbi narrowed her eyes which inexplicably made him feel guilty.

"So have you come up with a plan yet?" Hunter asked instead of putting his foot in his mouth again.

"I was just getting information about this place." The blonde turned back to the little brunette as the big brunette made his way over to them instead of calling across the room so anyone outside could hear their plans.

"I don't know much." Skye looked down, upset at herself.

"That's okay, Miniature, just tell us what you know." Bobbi assured as Lance sat himself on Skye's other side.

"Shh..." Skye shook her head, pressing a finger to her lips and using her other hand to point to the door. The three watched with baited breath as the shadows stomped past the door. "During the day it's different to night." The girl spoke after a few moments. "During the day the shadows come, then six hundred Mississippi's later there's crunching outside the window-" she pointed up to the window opposite door, "-then it's six hundred Mississippi's until the shadows again."

"Mississippi's? What-"

"Ten minutes." Bobbi cut Hunter off, "the guard goes by the door, then ten minutes later they go outside, then another ten minutes till they're at the door." The blonde translated after a quick maths session. "A twenty minute loop."

"At night it's longer; I can't see the shadows at the door, but it's three thousand, six hundred Mississippi's between the gravel crunching... An hour, right?" Big brown eyes looked up her hopefully; even in captivity she was trying to impress Bobbi.

"Right." Bobbi nodded, so logically it would be best to escape at night. It would be more difficult to navigate at night, but it was longer between the guards.

"But, that's all I know." Skye looked down sadly. "I've never seen outside the door except when Ward came and even then I only saw walls the same as these ones."

"That's okay-..." Bobbi stopped, hoping she'd heard wrong. "Who did you see?" Skye frowned, picking at the hem of one the sleeves on the leather jacket.

"Ward was here." She spoke in a small voice. "He said he couldn't help me escape, I don't understand why not. He just gave me chalk and he left. I wanted to go with him, but he wouldn't let me and then he locked the door again."

"Ward was here?" Bobbi repeated hoarsely. One of her best friends. "Are you sure, Skye?"

"He said it wasn't personal." Skye nodded, still concentrating on the sleeve. "I think he's the one that gave me the blanket on the first night." A ratty little thing that had more holes than Swiss cheese.

"I don't get it, do you know this Ward guy?" Hunter spoke up, looking between the girls in confusion.

"Yeah." Bobbi swallowed roughly. "I thought he was a friend."

"Some friend." The Englishman snorted.

The trio sat in silence; one figured it was just a bad time to talk, one felt guilty for outing Bobbi's friend, and the blonde herself was currently plotting the non-accidental death of her former friend. Ward; the guy who had zero people skills and was half afraid of 13-year-old Fitz's engineering creations. Ward who had helped her look for Skye when she got lost at school. Ward who apparently had a hand in kidnapping and imprisoning Skye for the last two days. Ward who would be dead the next time she saw him.

"What about-" Bobbi tried to refocus on the tasked at hand; getting Skye out of there and to safety. "-what about when they bring meals? Or the bathroom? Do they ever-?" She felt Skye freeze next to her and hated the next question she was going to ask. " _Did_  they give you food? Take you to the bathroom?" The silence was loud. Too loud. Bobbi added the unknown names of every single person in the building to her hit list.

"Simmons said you can survive three days without water." Both girls looked over to Hunter in shock when a loud smack sounded and saw him gripping his hand after clearly just having punched the concrete wall.

"Save some of those bastards for me kill, yeah, Bob?" Hunter ground out with barely concealed anger. "Check the jacket." He added after a minute, "I think there's some candy in the inside pocket." It was Bobbi's hands, not Skye's, that reached into the jacket and found half an English candy bar.

"You need to eat, Kid." Bobbi urged, sure it wasn't the best option, but it was the only one they had right now. "It's been two days, you need to eat."

While Skye was nibbling on the candy Bobbi got up and pulled Hunter to a different corner. "I don't care what happens to me, I'm getting her out of here." Bobbi murmured, keeping her blue eyes on the girl. "You really should have stayed in that first town, Hunter."

"I never do what I should do, Love." Hunter sighed, this was going to be an eventful day. "What's the plan?"

"I need to see through those windows-" the one in the door and the one on the wall. "-and I need to get that bracelet off her."

"Bracelet?" Hunter frowned, "what does a bracelet have to do with anything?"

"We're not sisters, Lance." Bobbi went back to Skye, letting out a slow breath. Classified intel number one; "we're students of the Special Children's Housing, Operations and Learning Active Response... A division of SHIELD... Yes,  _that_  SHIELD."

* * *

"To the left." Bobbi instructed from her position on Hunters shoulders. "The  **other**  left, Hunter." The man stumbled in the opposite direction as Bobbi tried to get a look out the window. Brown, barren lands, blue skies, plain concrete buildings in the distance. Absolutely nothing descript about any of it.

"Anything?" Hunters voice was strained and his grip on her thighs was only slightly distracting.

"A dozen more buildings that look exactly like this one?" She tapped his head in a signal to let her down. So much for an exit strategy.

"You know, I usually get to know a lady before I have her legs around my head." He grinned despite the slap upside the head it earned him.

"You found the seam yet, Kid?" Skye's task while Bobbi and Hunter tried to look through the windows had been to use the chalk to try and find the seam in her nanny bracelet. It had taken longer than the 11-year-old liked to find the crease in the metal.

"Yeah, but I still can't open it." Trust her, she'd tried every way to open it ever since Hand put it on her. The closest she'd ever seen was when Agent Hill did some override code so Bobbi could use her computer when Skye was near.

"Hunter, how long until the next guard is at the door?"

"Two minutes, why?"

"Lift me up again." Bobbi demanded, already standing next to the door. "The guards are gonna have weapons, hopefully a knife." Was all the explanation she gave, she could already hear the footsteps of the guard in the hallway - a completely non-descript hallway. Bobbi was on Hunters shoulders, right near the window, waiting until guard was close enough. A nudge of her foot and Hunter obediently stepped to the side right as he hand shot out and grabbed the hair of the guard. The man let out a yelp, automatically reaching for his head.

Bobbi gripped his hair as tight as she could, it was an awkward angle from her position on Hunters shoulders inside the cell with the guard out in the hall and so much short shorter than her reach. The guard reach for his waist and Bobbi hissed when the knife in his hand came in contact with her wrist. She gritted her teeth through the pain and released her grip on his hair in favour of the knife. The guard was so shocked his hair was free that he let go of the knife. Idiot.

"Hunter." Bobbi nudged him again, bringing her hand - and the knife - back into the cell quickly, before the guard realised his amature mistake. "We're in business." And they didn't have long if the guard was smart. He'd be calling someone about her attack.

"You're cut." Skye frowned when the two teenagers approached her. Hunter kept his back to the girls, keeping watch on the door for when the guards came back.

"I'm fine, Kiddo, let's see that bracelet." Bobbi tried to smile reassuringly. Skye's fingers showed her the seam of the bracelet and Bobbi bit her lip.

"What will getting that off do anyway?" Hunter questioned with his back still to them.

"It's a nanny bracelet, keeps track of high-risk targets-"

"Like eleven-year-olds." He snorted and rolled his eyes behind their backs.

"If it comes off it sends an emergency transmission to every Level Eight and higher for immediate attention." Bobbi explained causing Hunter to turn and stare at her in bewilderment. "We learned about it in class." The blonde shrugged.

"Bloody spy class." Hunter grumbled, turning back to the door.

"Keep your eyes on me, Skye, okay?" Bobbi instructed, examining the seam. They didn't have long now. "Just keep your eyes on me, not your hand."

"'Kay." Skye nodded, she was nibbling her bottom lip, but obediently kept her wide brown eyes on Bobbi's face instead of the knife at her arm.

"Hey, Kid, Bobbi's says that English chocolate tastes weird, I recon it's American chocolate that isn't right." Hunter spoke and Bobbi said a silent thank-you to him as she eased the knife between Skye's arm and the bracelet. "What do you think?"

"I dunno." Skye shrugged, frowning at his back.

"See, American chocolate is way too sweet, it's like eating a bucket of sugar."

"Which is what candy is for." Skye rolled her eyes. Honestly. "Why would you want candy without sugar?"

"Hey, I love sugar as much as the next sweet tooth, but you really need to savour the smoothness of English candy." He defended right as Bobbi took a deep breath and used all her strength to jab the blade of the knife at the seam of the bracelet.

The bracelet flashed - not just three dots, but the whole silver band - bright red for a second as it fell onto the floor. Bobbi let out a breath of relief - Skye still had all her limbs! - but it didn't last long; the lock on the door scraped open.

"Hunter!" Bobbi tossed him the knife as they both stood in front of Skye. The first man that came at them received a slice across the face for his troubles. Followed immediately by a punch to the jaw and a kick to the stomach. "Just like capture the flag." She mused, already blocking an attack from the second man.

"Protect the flag." Hunter nodded, "I can do that." He took a swipe at another man with the knife before noticing that Bobbi was rapidly losing her fight. "Bobbi!" Her fingers grasped the handle of the blade just in time to push it up into the chest of the man on top of her who had his own knife at her neck.

They were outnumbered and severely outclassed. Two of them - injured and weak - against six (now five) trained men. This wasn't looking good. Bobbi held onto the hope that the emergency transmission would work and someone would be here soon to get Skye. Bobbi slid the second knife over to Hunter, which he quickly shoved into the calf of the man on top of him.

"These guys don't pull punches for teenagers." Hunter groaned, scrabbling to try and get back on his feet. He should really stop following pretty blondes on the highway!

"That's okay," Bobbi's body was screaming at her to just give up already, but there were still five men between Skye and relative safety - relative because she wouldn't be safe until she was out of this Hell hole. "I don't either." Because she'd just noticed that one of the men - the one by the doorway not doing anything - was Grant Ward.

"HELP!" Both teenagers' attention snapped to Skye; she was lifted off the ground by one of them, despite her struggling he was easily keeping her contained.

"SKYE!" Bobbi tried to run to her, but was pulled back by another of the men.

BANG!

The unmistakable sound of a gunshot made Bobbi and Lance freeze; Skye's screams had stopped!

BANG!

Another shot and Bobbi was still in shock, even more so when it was the man she was fighting that collapsed.

"Run!" Bobbi looked over to see Ward standing by the door, still holding the gun, his hand shaking, looking pale. "Get Skye and run!" Bobbi didn't need to be told twice - although technically she had been - and she got up, trying to push her full-body pain to the back of her mind. It wasn't as easy as the Agents explained it in class.

"Skye!" The girl was standing in the hallway, staring at the unmoving body of the man that had been trying to take her. "Come on, Baby, let's go." Her grip on Skye's hand was painful, but the girl didn't seem to care as she squeezed back just as hard and the two ran. They heard another gunshot and it made Skye stumble, but Bobbi kept pulling her along.

The whole building was overrun with men with weapons wearing stereotypical black outfits. There was no way Bobbi could fight her way out, not with Ward and Hunter, and definitely not alone. She could hear shouting footsteps around the corner up ahead, there was undoubtedly people coming up behind them, there was a handy door right next to them in the hallway. Anything could be behind that door. Anything was better than dozens of armed men.

Skye was panting and tripping over her own feet as Bobbi nudged her into the room; a storeroom stacked to the roof with boxes. Before she could close the door she saw Hunter and Ward running down the hall. Did she risk Skye for the boys?

"Go hide." She hissed, pushing the girl further into the room. The boys were 20 feet away. Skye slipped her tiny body behind a stack of boxes. The boys were ten feet away. She could hear the men at the corner. "Hurry." The boys were in the room and Bobbi closed the door as quickly and quietly as possible. Bobbi ducked behind the same stack of boxes as Skye, pulling the girl close and holding on for dear life, Ward hid behind a desk at the back of the room, and Hunter wedged himself beside a bookcase.

The four of them waited with baited breath as the hallway outside the storeroom was flooded with shouting and footsteps. Running past, walking, shouting, arguing... Not coming into their hideout.

* * *

**Hour 3**

Bobbi was nearly falling asleep, her muscles aching, her head pounding, her kid sitting safe next to her. Then the gunshots started. Ward had been lounging on the desk and ducked back behind it. Hunter had made his way over to the girls and barely managed to fit in the small space behind the boxes to hide. They couldn't fight anymore. They were teenagers, not soldiers.

The yelling, the gunshots, the running it all started again. Bobbi waited, they were going to come for them, they were going to take Skye again. Over her dead body.

"Hey." Hunter whispered, she looked at him. He wasn't even meant to be here. He was just some stranger she'd pick-pocketed and now she was going to get him killed. "Been a Hell of a day, Love."

"Yeah." That was the understatement of the year. Before Bobbi could say anything else she was surprised to feel a soft, warm pair of lips against her own.

"Can't arrest me for jailbait if I'm dead." Lance's grin was crooked when he pulled back. The door to their storeroom burst open. She couldn't see how many people it was, but at this point any was too many.

"Agent May?" Her hand slapped over Skye's mouth too late. A gun trained in their direction and they had no choice to come out of hiding.

There was only one person in the room - Agent May, just like Skye said - aiming a gun in their direction. May was covered in dirt and blood and had a split lip, a cut on her cheek and in a few hours there would probably be bruises. But, it was Agent May.

"Package acquired." May spoke into the air - a comms unit, Bobbi's mind supplied - lowering her gun and staring at the three teenagers and one preteen. "Morse." The five of them stood around awkwardly for a moment. "I think we'll give you a pass for your mission."

"Thanks." Bobbi let out a short laugh. A pass; she'd take it.

* * *

 

"This doesn't look like a bus!" Skye blurted out when Agent May and the others she didn't recognise led her, Bobbi, Ward and Hunter to a big black plane.

"The kids are medical priority." May called out, hitting a button on the wall and making the ramp they'd just walked up rise and close. "Wheels up in ten."

"It's still not a bus." Skye said as she clutched Bobbi's hand and followed her to what she guessed was 'medical'.

"I'll let Hill and Hand know." A man with receding blonde hair and a crease in his brow told May as she passed. "You gave some very important people quite a scare." He called to the four of them. Bobbi sat next to Skye as the medical personnel started fussing around them, Ward groaned as he laid himself on another examining table and Hunter slid down to the floor instead of climbing onto a third table.

"Are you always this exciting or can I look forward to some down time at some point?" Hunter questioned as one of the medicals knelt next to him.

"Bet you can survive SAS training after this." Bobbi laughed, and then stopped because it hurt to laugh.

The blonde man with the crinkle in his brow came back to them and just stared at them for a while. "Barbara Morse," Bobbi looked up as someone was cleaning the cut on her wrist. "Grant Ward," he sat himself up and stared at the man. " _Skye_ ," she was so happy not to be in the cell that she wouldn't have argued if he called her Mary. "And..."

"Lance Hunter." The brunette provided, still sitting on the floor.

"My name is Agent Coulson, and you've all missed some important things in the last few days." The man - Coulson - pulled a chair over. "HYDRA-" Ward twitch on his table, but didn't say anything. "-has infiltrated SHIELD to it's highest ranks. Director Fury is  **officially**  dead. What's left of the organisation has been destroyed and decimated. This bus-this plane holds no official standing, no authority on any continent, but it is the last remnants of SHIELD..." He tossed a small black cube onto a nearby desk and a large holographic S.H.I.E.L.D emblem rose above it. "If you'd like to stay we can get you healed up and help you finish your schooling."

Skye tugged on Bobbi's sleeve and whispered in her ear when she leaned down. "Yeah, Miniature," Bobbi laid down across the table, she was exhausted. "These ones are the good guys."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> FINAL CHAPTER!!!
> 
> Don't forget to tune in for the sequel at the end of September!  
> Sorry to everyone that wanted Ward to be evil; in my head he wasn't under Garrett's influence as long as in canon so he didn't have as much control, so in this Ward still has somewhat of a conscience. And yes, he will have to face the consequences of what he did (or in this case didn't do). Painfully. At the hands of a very pissed off Bobbi.

**Author's Note:**

> Has anyone noticed a distinct lack of Bobbi/Skye fics? Well, this is one more to add to the teeny tiny collection we've got going and hopefully more will follow because who doesn't need a little MorseCode in their lives?
> 
> September 29th-ish - Chapter 1 of part 2 of the series
> 
> Anyone have a better idea for the summary?


End file.
